The Toot Yung art center is pleased to present a special showcase by British printmaker Ralph Kiggell.

Kiggell will be residing at the Toot Yung art center in August of 2020 to produce an exclusive suite of giant woodcut prints. With a special focus on natural materials sourced in the region, he will be working on “Saa” handmade paper from SP Studio, Lampang, and will be guided for his natural dyes by Chiang Mai artisans Slowstitch Studio. This fruitful collaboration will result in giant woodcuts exploring the many poetic, symbolic and ecological aspects of the jungle.
 
In this suite of prints, Kiggell loosely references folk woodcuts from Europe and Japan, as well as Thai Ramakien illustrations. Using natural pigments and dyes, he works in black, green and indigo, to print a mass of abundant vegetation, where, among trees, lianas, flowers, and by a waterfall, we see images of figures, animals, and birds. In the pools of darkness and light, who are the hunters, who are the hunted?

Within the fantasy, the overriding story is about an earthly paradise that we know may already be lost.