Cassandra Hooper, of Croton on Hudson, NY, joined us for an artist residency over the week of November 14th focusing on works of print media. An professor in printmaking and art of the book at SUNY Purchase, Cassandra’s practice involves watching the world carefully, recording flashes and near misses that express the ever-present tug-of-war between public and private self, individual and society, human and nature. She makes images that aim to simultaneously reveal a crucial moment of defenselessness while admitting the impossibility of denying our own fragility. Her pictures depict a space of time laden and reflexive, playing with the tension between the emotional landscape and the slow unraveling of the narrative. These dramas play out in scenes constructed of the detritus of suburban female experience—the awkwardly defiant posture of a child, the outcast chair, overgrown gardens, domestic spaces of bygone eras, drawing on experience of performing rituals of vulnerability as a child, a mother, and the nebulous space between those roles.

Over the course of her residency Cassandra focused on a series of laser etched wood block prints and a series of photo polymer plate prints. IEA Co-Director Joseph Scheer and Aodi Liang worked extensively with Cassandra with all of the various processes in translating Cassandra’s photo compositions from digital files to physical prints through use of the Epilog laser cutter, WLS polymer plate maker, Takach etching press, and the Stienmesse and Stolberg flatbed offset press. A large series of work was produced in multiple editions for future shows and exhibitions.

Below are images from Cassandra’s residency: