Dark Ballad has built an impressive library of collaborations over the last few years – most notably in the series of limited edition hand-printed t-shirts featuring a diverse roster of creatives. In Collusion, his upcoming show at Sydenham’s Chapter1 Gallery, Dark Ballad will present the cohesive collection: more than twenty artists, each represented by t-shirts, prints on paper and the carved printing blocks themselves – an insight into the process of collaboration, both technical and relational. Exploring woodblock printing’s possibilities and surveying connections across disparate corners of local creative communities, Collusion is sure to be a fascinating look into Dark Ballad’s practice and how networks are built. We sat down with Dark Ballad for a chat about the show, what it reflects about his experiences and how you can get involved in the wider programme of activities.
We’re excited to chat about your upcoming show Collusion at Chapter 1 Gallery, opening on November the 20th…
Dark Ballad: Yes!
How has it Collusion come about?
Dark Ballad: It’s been three to four years of collaborating with all my favourite artists and artists who were keen. It started in early 2024, when I think I did a collaboration with Priscilla Rose Howe. That was a really good starting point because she’s pretty big now! She already was well-known, but she was also just a friend of ours, so I asked her if she was keen. I was trying to broaden my horizons on what could be turned into a woodcut. So, it started from there, and then I just thought, that went well, what other friends who are good artists would be good to work with? The answer was tons! I was still doing my own shirts and woodcuts, but the collabs just kind of took off because I was meeting heaps of new people doing this. I then got quite heavily into the graffiti and street art scene, and the show features many familiar names from that world. I had never even thought about doing an exhibition until I realized I had about 25 shirts that I’d already been selling, but I also had all these prints archived and had never shown them, and there was a heap of woodblocks as well. The show will have a uniform look, in terms of the presentation, but there is such a wide range of artists represented. I’ve only had like one or two solo shows before, and this is a solo show, but it is It’s like a hybrid solo show collaboration…
The name, Collusion, speaks about that collaborative process. In our previous interview, we talked about that process of collaboration, but this feels like it’s also a summation of your trajectory over the last few years, all of the people you’ve collaborated with, but also, I think finding how your voice works within those relationships. You’ve got different artists, but at the heart of it is how your printmaking process can adapt and work with different styles. How do you find that process of when it comes to a collaboration? Are you seeking a fidelity to that, to the artist you’re working with in terms of replicating an element of their work? Or are you also looking to bring in something that’s very specific to the process of woodblock into the work as well?
Dark Ballad: Yeah, it’s a mix. Some of them, the point was to be able to replicate something that they’d done on a wall almost verbatim, to see if it can be done and look cool. Like the Rivet collab, that’s a real piece on a wall, it already looked like that. I added a few little easter eggs, but other than that, the point of that one was to replicate it seamlessly. Same with the PK ones, the drippy mops effect, I didn’t want that to look like a woodcut whatsoever. So that was one where my contribution was the precision of making the illusion look like he’d drawn on every single one of these things when it’s actually a woodcut. Then there were others, like with Hambone, with Hannah Martin, with Klaudia Bartos, a bunch of the non-graffiti guys, where it’s almost like half-and-half, where they blended seamlessly with the woodblock. Then there were hybrid ones, like with Priscilla Rose Howe, where she just gave me a quite a light pencil sketch, and my contribution was all the texture. So, it’s quite all over the place with styles and stuff, there’s no distinct style except for the stark black and white. But you won’t see two that are similar in terms of how they’re a collab. That’s the cool thing about it!
When you start to see them all together, even just the list of names on the poster, and you think about each of those collaborations, it must be a really nice way of looking back. I’m sure every collaboration is not just distinct in terms of your interpretation of a work or process, but literally the relationship with the person as well…
Dark Ballad: Yeah, it has been quite nice, but then sometimes it’s been quite melancholic because, you know, some of these people I used to hang out with all the time, and then some of them I haven’t seen in ages, you know, life has happened and it’s not the way it was before when we were like hanging out and doing these collabs. But the recent ones are like new friends that I’ve made and formed partnerships with, like Scotch, not many people would’ve heard of him because he’s only just started doing stuff with me. But he lives where my studio is and he’s been almost an apprentice to me and really learned the ropes fast. At the moment, his contributions are to the actual garment. He sews and stitches onto a shirt. So there’s a bunch of new friends, a bunch of people I haven’t seen in a while. When you go back through the collabs, it’s heaps of late nights, lots of all-nighters. Some of them have come full circle, I’ve got a new PK one releasing hopefully next week. But yeah, as I said, it’s four years of collabs, so there is a bittersweet element, a lot of stuff happens. Like when you look through your like camera roll, you’re looking for a specific picture in your camera roll, you’ve got to scroll through years of traumatic memories to get to the one you need.
Speaking of which, I think one of the things I really appreciate about your work is the tactility, the reality of the objects you make. We live in an age of digital production and dissemination, obviously we’ve got the spectre of AI hanging over everything, but for you, just how important is the physical element? Printmaking itself is a very physical process, right?
Dark Ballad: Yeah. I’m lucky in a way with that being on the horizon, like this fully digital world, because I’ve got this object, this carved object which sometimes I like more than the print, it’s like irrefutable proof that I’ve done this thing and it hasn’t been digitally done in any way. I can show that the process is all by hand. It’s like of the utmost importance, more so than something like screen printing where it’s all digital and you put it on the screen, you know, whereas this is all done by hand. So that’s why for Collusion I’ll have the woodblock on display as well, not for sale, but next to the work that is for sale, so people can actually see what goes into it all. They won’t be able to ignore the hours of work that have gone into these things.
It’s interesting, because in this case, when you’re using the blocks are both an artwork in themselves, but also an element the machinery of production…
Dark Ballad: Yeah.
The idea of exhibiting the block as a tactile thing has become an important part of your work.
Dark Ballad: It’s super valid, the block is irreplaceable, it’s one of a kind. Like the shirts, it’s weird because the purpose of printmaking is to repeat, but the method of being able to do that comes from this precious thing. In traditional printmaking, you’re supposed to destroy the block after you’ve done the edition on paper, but I’m not doing that.
The other thing is that those blocks carry the residue of every print that they’ve done. They have this patina of their own history that’s inherently part of them as well.
Dark Ballad: Yeah, sometimes I’ll print something and it will take off whatever layer was underneath and I’ll just be, oh yeah, I remember when I did that red! It’s like graffiti walls, when you take off the paint and there’s just like a Gobstopper-like marbling underneath. You can see that on some blocks. So, I just want to see them on the walls all together with the things they have produced. Some of them are precisely cut and clean and some of them are older ones where they’ve just got ink, like, you almost can’t even really see the picture anymore because it’s been used so much. So yeah, it’ll just be cool for people to see that as an installation.
Collusion is being held at Chapter1, how has it been working with a new gallery?
Dark Ballad: It has been good. As soon as Chapter1 popped up, I saw their first exhibition and how big the space was, and it was clearly a great fit. I’m kind of shameless when it comes to just putting my foot in the door for these things. I just go in and say I want to do this, how are we going to do it? So, we just went from there. I was part of the Suitcase Stories exhibition with Rachael (Hemingway, founder of Chapter1) and that went well. Chapter1 is a huge space so it will fit all the work. Rachael’s got a good mind, a sort of a business mind for things, so I’ll be able to sell my shirts on her website and stuff, which is how I want to do it.
There is a dearth of viable spaces in Ōtautahi for artists who maybe aren’t embedded in the fine arts world, so the presence of places like Chapter1 is really important. Lastly, what can people expect from Collusion’s programme?
Dark Ballad: Collusion opens on November 20th. Liquorland Carlton is kindly going to donate some drinks. So, there’s the opening and then I’m hosting a couple of workshops: the first Sunday and then the next Saturday. The first workshop is garment printing – bring in your own t-shirt and I’ll print it with one of my designs. There is a fee, so book online via my Instagram bio. The second one is a sticker printing workshop, similar to the workshops I’ve hosted for The Little Street Art Festival, you can print your own run of stickers using any of my smaller woodblocks. Information for both workshops are on Chapter1’s website or on my Instagram. Then on Thursday the 26th at 6:30pm, you are graciously hosting an interview with me. I’m not a big artist talk guy, I don’t really like standing in front of a crowd and just talking, so a conversation is a better way to go!
I’m really excited, it’s always great to dive into discussions with creatives and we have had plenty of good conversations in the past that we’ll be able to draw on. I love all these activations alongside the exhibition, as well as seeing so many artists who you’ve collaborated with being presented, I can’t wait to see it all brought together. Thanks for your time and we’ll see you at Chapter1!
Dark Ballad: Awesome. Thanks.
Collusion – A collaborative show by Dark Ballad featuring Alias, Anime, Borge, Bleak, Eisoe, Ekoe, Fiasko, Hambone, Hannah Martin, Klaudia Bartos, Mr Wolf, Orgnz, Pkay, PMang, Priscilla Rose Howe, TrolllDoll, Rivet, Scotch, SKAM, Smeagol – Chapter1 Gallery, 96 Orbell Street, Sydenham, Christchurch – 20-29 November
