Dear Beloved features a coded correspondence between St. Michael’s Printshop (St. John’s, NL) and Malaspina Printmakers (Vancouver, BC) through an exchange of maritime signal flags printed from the floors of both studios.
Vancouver-based artist Sylvan Hamburger monoprinted a series of coded signals from the textured floorboards of St. Michael’s Printshop, a former sail-making workshop on the Atlantic, during his visiting artist residency in October 2021. Upon returning to Vancouver, Sylvan printed corresponding signal flags from the cement flooring of the Malaspina Printmakers studio, located in a former industrial block by the docks of Vancouver’s Grandville Island. The resulting prints were exchanged and hung at each studio where the inked traces of the printing process remain visible on the corresponding floors.
Using the International Code of Signals, the flags can be deciphered into abbreviated instant messaging phrases that express feelings of flirtation, desire and loss. At a time of increased communication yet growing isolation, Dear Beloved looks to foster a relationship between the Atlantic and Pacific print centres, engage their histories, and examines the peculiarities of attempting meaningful connection over distance.