SPOUK

SPOUK is the practice of Marieke Pras, a printmaker, designer, and researcher based in Groningen (NL). The name SPOUK is a pun derived from the local dialect. It means ghost, or to walk around like a ghost, and is also an inside joke for screen printing. It makes for an accurate style description: a bit haunted, a bit funny, sometimes both at the same time.

Marieke’s tagline is “design & research & printmaking”. In her work, those three things are combined in various ways. She comments; “I find it important that what I do has some kind of use – whether that is creating a functional object (such as giftwraps or bookmarks), or some kind of storytelling function”.

Her screen printing style is usually more abstract, with a focus on texture and colour. Marieke works on small-scale screen printing projects for which she prints abstract looking posters. She often works in collaboration with another designer to do screen print experiments at events. Here, silkscreen printing becomes a tool for asking questions about the perception and expectations of their audience, through which they can start conversations between people that force them to (re)consider their own assumptions.

While she mainly works with screen printing, during 2020 Marieke rediscovered block printing at her kitchen table. Sustainable use and production of materials is also a large component of her practice, thus she purchases secondhand supplies and reuses print cutoffs to make new products. This also led Marieke to research ways to make screen printed products that can be used in every day life, from giftwrap to bookmarks.

Marieke achieved a Bachelor’s degree in Illustration and design, where her love for printmaking started in the workshops of Academie Minerva (GR, NL). During her final year, she decided she wanted to combine her artistic practice with theoretical research, which is how she ended up following this up with a Master’s degree in Narratology and Media Studies. Marieke states; “It means that I can now easily take up research-heavy design jobs, because I have enough experience to dive into complicated theoretical projects and delineate what is important to visualize, and how to visualize that”. Simultaneously, she started up her professional practice with a hundred euro loan and a secondhand screen printing table. Over the last few years this practice has developed into SPOUK: part abstract printmaking, part commissioned projects, and the occasional teaching spot here and there.

Currently, Marieke is using her past studies as a basis for two research projects. For the first she is slowly researching various forms of screen printing and their history, and for the second she is working with another researcher/designer focused on discussing queer identity in (semi)rural environments through artistic practices.

She also regularly takes on illustration and design commissions where possible. Recently, this has meant designing a research rapport, illustrating a thesis cover, and making a film poster, for example.

“An essential part of my motivation comes from looking around in a society full of systemic problems and trying to figure out what I can do about that,” comments the printmaker. In a very practical sense, Marieke works with ink and paint, and goes back and forth between digital and traditional media to create textures and illustrations, thus developing her aesthetic. All the while, she makes do with the resources and time that she has, with these constraints creating a certain aesthetic as well. “My practice in all aspects is very informed by my political outlook on the world,” says Marieke.

When asked how she would define her inspirations, she states; “That’s pretty hard to pinpoint. My frame of reference is 800 books, 10 years of studying art and narrative, an extensive filmography, and queer spite at what I’ve seen before and want to change. For something like my weekly filmposter redesign project the influences are very direct, but with most of my projects I fall back on this huge frame of reference that I reflect on through the making process.”

Marieke hopes to continue to stabilise and expand her practice. She has lots of exciting projects in the pipeline including graphic novels, book design, and textile projects. She concludes; “…I want to tell queer stories. I want to talk about the challenges of printmaking with constraints (time, money, means, knowledge), and talk about how to increase the accessibility of tools and knowledge, to lower barriers and expectations.”

Shop SPOUK’s collection on DEPT.STORE.

www.spouk.nl
@spoukprint

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