Heidelberg Blankets
Heidelberg Blanket C1 (Damiani Editore, Faenza, Italy), detail
2018
embroidery on Heidelberg lithographic printing press cleaning blanket
94 x 41 inches
Heidelberg Blanket M1 (Damiani Editore, Faenza, Italy), detail
2018
embroidery on Heidelberg lithographic printing press cleaning blanket
94 x 41 inches
Heidelberg Blanket Y1 (Damiani Editore, Faenza, Italy), detail
2018
embroidery on Heidelberg lithographic printing press cleaning blanket
94 x 41 inches
Heidelberg Blanket K1 (Damiani Editore, Faenza, Italy), detail
2018
embroidery on Heidelberg lithographic printing press cleaning blanket
94 x 41 inches
Heidelberg Blanket CM1 (Damiani Editore, Faenza, Italy), detail
2018
embroidery on Heidelberg lithographic printing press cleaning blanket
94 x 41 inches
“Brandt collected the blankets that cleaned the excess ink from his 2014 Lakes and Reservoirs book. Embroidered onto these blankets are snapshots from the studio—his hands, his father’s screwdriver, a crowbar that he was robbed with, a friend’s iPhone and a crumpled love letter.”
—The Armory Show Preview Highlights, by Victoria Burns,2017
“Brandt found the base fabric material for this series at the Damiani printing plant in Bologna, Italy in 2014. There for the printing of his Lakes and Reservoirs book, Brandt also had the opportunity to learn about the publisher's exceptionally large Heidelberg offset lithographic printer. So large and complex that it fills an entire warehouse, the printer has the sole job of neatly applying ink to paper. A major part of this task is devoted to cleaning the multitude of rollers with a specially engineered blanket material that runs through the machine. The rollers leave linear impressions on the baby blue blankets, one color at a time, cyan, magenta, yellow and black.
Brandt collected the blankets that cleaned the excess ink from his book. Embroidered onto these blankets are snapshots from the studio-his hands, his father's screwdriver, a crowbar that he was robbed with, a friend's iPhone and a crumpled love letter. Such a slowed down image-making process, with each thread mark considered and meticulously made, contrasts with the repeated striations that the printer so rapidly reproduced. These pictures are documents of their own making, and oscillate between the slow and fast, handmade and mechanical.”
—M + B , press release, Matthew Brandt: AGX.HB