Background
The northeastern oil shale region of Estonia is a landscape marked by violent extractivism and deep ecological transformation. Over decades, industrial processes have left behind enormous ash hills and polluting residues, blurring boundaries between waste and resource, life and decay. These residues are not merely leftovers; they continue to interact with wind, rain, plant roots, and microbial life, forming what scholars describe as “queer ecologies” (Tsing, 2015). In this context, the role of artists and researchers is not to restore an imagined past but to engage with these altered landscapes as living archives of entanglement and transformation (Haraway, 2016). My interest lies in how printmaking, a medium of contact, pressure, and trace, which can be used to materially engage with this terrain, making elemental flows visible through tactile experimentation.
Main Object of Study & Anticipated Outcomes
I propose to focus on one of the ash hills near the Estonian oil shale region as my primary field object. Rather than representing it through conventional photography or documentation, I intend to use the ash, surface textures, and found materials from the site directly in the printmaking process. These post-industrial remnants can be seen not only as waste but as materials inscribed with historical, geological, and ecological time (Parikka, 2015). Using techniques such as relief printing and monotyping, I will experiment with ash as both pigment and pressure-sensitive dust, treating the site itself as an unstable printing plate.
Prints made from these interactions will be sensitive to surface erosion, micro-topographies, and atmospheric elements like wind and moisture—registering them as ambient collaborators in the process. This methodology aims to explore the recompositional forces still at work in these post-extractive zones. By allowing the materiality of the site to shape the outcome, I hope to foreground the agency of residue and create works that act as ecological scorecards rather than aestheticized ruins.
The expected outcome is a collection of prints accompanied by contextual reflections (written and visual) that will be shared on the course wiki. These may be further developed into a speculative artist’s zine or booklet.
Technical Description: Tools, Method, Process
Field methods will include eco-printmaking using relief and monotype techniques. I will bring brayers, handmade paper, light matrix materials (like soft linoleum and plastic sheets), and binders to mix ash into ink. I plan to collect samples of ash, detritus, and surface impressions using rubbing and transfer techniques, producing works that emphasize the imprint of the land’s surface. I may also incorporate cyanotype and rust printing to respond to the site's material reactivity and iron-rich debris.
References:
Tsing, A. L. (2015). The Mushroom at the End of the World – on multispecies survival and post-capitalist landscapes.
Haraway, D. (2016). Staying with the Trouble – on sympoiesis and making-with the world.
Parikka, J. (2015). A Geology of Media – connecting media practice with deep time and mineral materiality.