Anthony Burrill
How to use words properly
Tuesday May 24
Produced in association with Ditchling Museum of Art + Craft; Anthony Burrill ( he of the ‘Work Hard and be Nice To People’ Print meme was fresh from producing a new print for Ditchling Museum of Art + Craft. Burrill is a graphic artist and printmaker, and ecological political agitator on the quiet and he spoke about how everyone can be easily motivated to take part in the world they live in and challenge power in an easy, interesting and creative way. His distinctive voice is lent authenticity by his commitment to traditional image-making processes and materials and part of his presentation took us into the faded delights of his favourite Rye print shop and a similar letterpress studio, Grafica Fidalga in San Paulo, Brazil, both fascinating insights into a rare world.
See more of Burrill’s work here:
Burrill spoke about using words properly, in an oddly hesitant way. For a professional communicator his spoken style is off the cuff and hesitant, but he was engaging enough and after a few techy problems were ironed out he seemed to relax and took us on a tour of his work and explained how he uses words in his work and his attempts to avoid cliché, well-worn phrases and cheesy sentimentality, whilst tongue- in-cheek using all three.
Full details on this event here:
He’s a man full of charming contradictions and the audience enjoyed his talk and some Q&A to follow were fun. Burrill mentioned the current exhibition and events running in Ditchling and the importance of the Village of Ditchling to printing and typography. This exhibition marks the centenary of Edward Johnston’s world famous typeface for London Underground, and we were gifted a very nice collection of Burrills’ quirky work from the last few years.
Part of the joy of the Festival is it revels in its nerdyness and this lovely presentation, and talk from Sussex resident Anthony Burrill on the joys of simple expressive printing was a well-attended, informative and ultimately enjoyable night out. The Sallis Benney is a very comfortable venue and one very well suited to this type of event.
For more information on the Ditchling Village of Type Festival see the museum website here
You must be logged in to post a comment.