Zhi Zulu - Bridge over troubled giraffe

In this episode, we hear from artist and illustrator Zhi Zulu on her silkscreen edition titled 'Bridge over troubled giraffe (2020).' Zulu created this silkscreen print during her second collaboration with the David Krut Workshop (DKW) this year (2020), and the work was presented for the first time at the Turbine Art Fair. 'Bridge Over Troubled Giraffe' is part of a growing series of silkscreens, inspired by the artist’s experience of African stories being told for tourists and foreigners. The images convey a humourous take on stereotypical, inaccurate and fantastical tales that foreigners sometime believe of wild animals walking in the streets of Johannesburg, or people keeping them as pets.

This print collaboration was started just before the South Africa’s Covid-19 lockdown began in March 2020 and with lack of access to digitally printed positives it was necessary to hand draw the artwork to expose onto the screens for printing. This required Zhi handing over some of the making process to the printers on the project. In a way, this brought the work back to the most traditional sense of printmaking.

In this episode, we hear directly from Zhi about this series of prints, her use of colour and humour, collaborating with the David Krut Workshop team of printers over lockdown and the difference between silkscreen and digital printing.

Listen to the previous podcast - Zebra Crossing: https://davidkrutprojects.com/52401/david-krut-podcast-artist-series-e29-zhi-zulu-zebra-crossing

Read the workshop blog: https://davidkrutprojects.com/58663/bridge-over-troubled-giraffe