An event entitled “Instituto Salesiano Middle School Visual Arts Education – Modern Printmaking Bookplate Exhibition” showcases a raft of printmaking bookplates created by Salesiano Middle School pupils and teachers, at the Youth Art Exhibition and Performance Hall.
According to the Education and Youth Affairs Bureau (DSEJ) website, the school’s visual arts class pupils made use of their artistic skills learnt in the classroom to express their thoughts and showcase their process of thinking in these small bookplates.
According to the website, traditional printmaking focuses on the expression of themes, while modern printmaking focuses on the characteristics of the drawing materials being used. The pupils made use of techniques such as watercolours, woodcut painting, wood engraving, and hole engraving in traditional printmaking, while integrating modern printmaking with the exploration of new materials.
The pupils from Form 1 to Form 5 created various printmaking methods from different elements such as landscapes, anime, and daily life. They learnt during the creative process to overcome the difficulties they encountered through continuous attempts to seek innovation and achieve breakthroughs. The themes of the prints are diverse, and each piece contains the classmates and teachers’ creative ideas as well as the characteristics of both traditional and modern prints, according to the website.
Salesiano visual arts teacher Chuck Leong Wai Lap told The Macau Post Daily in a phone interview last week that bookplates are a type of printmaking which people in the West used to print on the first or last page of their books the Latin word “ex-libris”.
“Ex-libris” (Latin for “from the books of”) is a bookplate that identifies the owner of the book into which it is pasted.
Leong said he did not restrict his pupils to drawing certain topics. However, he required each pupil to submit a statement of concepts and ideas from which their work originated.
The exhibition is on display until May 10 at the Youth Art Exhibition and Performance Hall in Praça do Tap Seac. It is open from noon to 8 p.m. daily (except Mondays). Admission is free.
As part of the government’s COVID-19 epidemic prevention measures, all visitors entering the venue must wear a facemask, have their temperature checked and present a digital health declaration.
For enquiries, please call 2856 2801 or 2856 5463 or visit the website www.dsej.gov.mo/peeaj.
Photos: Camy Tam and Mark Yeung
