Riso Club

Fortnightly on Fridays 11.00 – 15.00
Introduction sessions for those new to risograph printers will happen in the first hour.
Contact: riso@commonhouse.org.uk

Riso Print Club is an affiliation of printmakers who are asking the question, “What constitutes a radical print resource?”

The answer is neither black or white, nor fluorescent pink. However, in the spirit of this question we extend an invitation to all Common House user groups and individuals to come design with us collaboratively during these sessions. This invitation also extends wider to those interested in learning about printmaking in the intersections of politics and aesthetics, or art in it’s social context.

In this way, we aim to counter the norm of ‘contracting out’ print and design, and see it as a playful way for activist groups to explore their politics further through the visual language used to communicate.

For anyone looking for a print service, we can recommend Hato Press, Ditto Press or Footprints Workers Co-op

Ava the Riso
RISO RP3500 or AVA the risograph, was purchased by x:talk and affectionately named after Ava Caradonna with the following statement:

“We do not wish to participate in a politics that creates individual ‘celebrity’ superstars. As a result we use the collective identity of Ava Caradonna (which roughly translates to ‘Eve the Good Woman’). Ava Caradonna is a migrant, a sex worker, a student, a mother, a citizen, a transgender, a person of colour, a teacher, a lesbian and a militant. She allows us to speak from different positions as sex workers and as allies, without the stigma of using our ‘real’ names and allows us to speak to the different realities in the sex industry and beyond.”

BOOKINGS AND COSTS:
You need to supply your own paper to print on Ava the Riso. The machine can print on A6, A5, A4 or A3 and you can print on a range of paper stock from 60GSM to 200GSM. You can get cheap recycled paper from PaperBack.

If you want to use Ava the Riso you need to get along to a training session – we are not running a printing service, but instead facilitating a collective resource. Training sessions currently take place most Fridays (check the calender + Riso Club facebook page) as part of the Riso Print Club. No need to book, just show up.

The Common House Ava The Riso Archive
We ask everybody who uses Ava the Riso to donate one print to the Common House Ava the Riso Archive – an archive of radical print culture. Please caption and date your print on the back so that we can archive it.