The Utopia Suite

The establishment in 1978 of Utopia Batik, at Utopia Station in Central Australia, gave the women artists of that community access to new ways of telling their stories.

In 1990 a portfolio of prints was proposed by Christopher Hodges and Helen Eager of Utopia Art, Sydney. Woodblocks were prepared in Sydney and Hodges and Eager took them out to the Utopia community. They demonstrated how to cut the blocks and printed the results for the community to see.

Artists at the community were then invited to engrave the blocks which were sent back to Sydney for printing by Eager and Hodges assisted by Tony Coleing and
Tom Goulder.

The result of this collaboration is the Utopia Suite, a portfolio of 72 prints by 68 artists. Like their batik work, these prints have a sureness and cohesiveness based on the local landscape, its contours, plants and local food sources, and the immediacy of the imagery is appealing.

Utopia Suite (no 54)
1990 Utopia/Sydney
woodcut on paper

Purchased 1990