Esther McManus: Artist Visit + Comic Workshop
At the end of August, we were delighted to welcome Esther McManus to Toogs Artist Workshop, who made the journey up to Shetland to explore our facilities, spend time in the studio, and lead a fantastic all-day comic workshop!
Esther is a comics artist and educator whose work examines print's historical role in the production and distribution of knowledge. Her comics explore personal & collective relationships to history and are often informed by archival research and a background in silkscreen and Risograph printing. You’ll find many of her publications on the Island Zine Library shelves.
Esther demonstrating binding techniques during an all day comic workshop she ran at Toogs Artist Workshop.
We first collaborated with Esther in 2021 as part of our programme Weemin’s Wark. Her contribution to We Axe For What We Want offered a personal response to the Up Helly Aa For Aa archive - experimenting with comics as a way to represent time. Since then, we’ve kept in touch, and this recent visit marked our first time meeting in person.
Esther’s 2021 exhibition and detail of her contribution to Gaada’s publicaiton We Axe for What We Want.
It was a joy to have Esther in the studio. Between bursts of making, we shared rich conversations about all things RISO, self-publishing, and print history. She spent time exploring the Island Zine Library, drawing ideas from old Gestetner shading plate symbols, which fed into a beautiful two-colour RISO print made for Saturday’s workshop.
Creating and binding a collaborative publication during Esther’s All-Day Comic Workshop.
During the comic workshop, Esther led us through a full day of creating, printing, and binding around the theme ‘histories of..…’ Participants explored so many wonderful ideas, from the history of a breath, to frogs, a favourite mug and nuclear accidents! Folk got stuck into the possibilities of 2 layer Riso printing and it was fantastic to bring all the varied interpretations together into a collaborative work and bring a whole publication to life in a single day!
During her visit, Esther also spent time experimenting with our new Etching and Aquatint facilities, getting started on a two-colour etching inspired by Margery Kempe.
