
Research & Knowledge Exchange Repository
Colossal
Last updated June 2026
<p>This practice-based research centres on Colossal, a mobile screen-printing studio that has evolved into an ongoing artwork and central research artefact. Emerging from a creative practice that pre-dates formal research framing, Colossal operates as a site through which questions of imagery, labour, access and presence are continually explored. Rather than functioning as a discrete project, the research unfolds through sustained practice across public, educational, cultural and community contexts.<br /><br />The enquiry is rooted in graphic design traditions of fragmentation, reassembly and montage, informed by avant-garde practices such as Dada, photomontage and Constructivism. Methods associated with these movements, layering, juxtaposition, scale-shifting and structure-finding, are embedded within the visual language and physical operation of Colossal. An emphasis on bodily labour, repetition and performance echoes the Constructivist conception of the artist as worker, positioning printmaking as a socially engaged and materially driven act. References to figures such as Hannah Höch foreground the cultural implications of imagery, particularly in relation to power, gender and authorship.<br /><br />The research also responds to contemporary conditions of technological convergence, in which mobile devices and screens mediate attention and shape everyday encounters with images. By grafting mobility onto printmaking technology, Colossal adopts a defining feature of digital culture while resisting passive modes of consumption. Mobility becomes both a conceptual and practical tool, disrupting fixed notions of printmaking and enabling imagery to be encountered through shared, tactile and participatory experience.<br /><br />Developed through long-term partnerships with cultural organisations, educators and communities, the practice foregrounds inclusivity, collaboration and real-world impact. Knowledge is generated through embodied making, collective decision-making and situated encounters, with dissemination embedded within the practice itself. This research articulates a coherent practice-led model in which artefact, method and impact remain inseparable, offering transferable insights for post-digital creative practice, pedagogy and socially engaged printmaking.</p>

Image Credit: Matt Thame
Publish Date
2025
Researcher
Reference
Lewry, S., (2025). Colossal [Research Practice] (2025). Art University Plymouth. DOI: 10.66992/VGqazF
ORCID
Research Type
Research Groups
