[music playing] Hey, everybody.

We are here today to talk about Sopheap Pich's assignment, Imprint.

And we're actually going to give it a go ourselves.

So we're going to talk about what you guys did, which was fantastic.

I'm going to get started.

[interposing voices] Ready?

We're going to start with a lemon, because a lot of people did food.

I think that this assignment reveals something really interesting about the materials around you, the materials around Sopheap when he started using bamboo and rattan for bamboo and rattan.

And what are we surrounded with after my search through our house?

We have a lot of waste materials.

Right.

We have a lot of outdated technology and styrofoam.

Floppy disks.

And we do have a lot of children's toys also.

So shhh.

Don't tell them.

Look.

I won.

I beat Sarah.

I beat Sarah at shallot imprinting.

We're experimenting.

No, it's about winning.

Oh, look.

It lit up.

I didn't know.

Oh boy!

SARAH GREEN: I do like how one of the responses used a fake flower, like a fabric flower, which I thought was sort of an interesting comment on our society that coming across a fake flower is often easier than-- Coming across a real one-- ---a real one.

But we did get a good real flower too as it happens.

Someone made something really beautiful with something like this.

Remember?

Round.

Yeah.

There were a few.

There was a jar that was really nice.

Meg and Lily did a lemon.

But their lemon was much better.

A single imprint might not be interesting.

But how you repeat it, and what you do with it, and what happens when you do that again and again is when it gets interesting.

JOHN GREEN: There was that one person who used that USB split in half.

It did make me think about how our lives are surrounded by outdated technology in a way that is very far away from Sopheap.

You know?

Oh wait.

It actually worked.

SARAH GREEN: Oh!

Cool.

Cool.

Oh.

Oh, sorry.

Sorry there, green paint.

Although, you could maybe use that.

That'll be nice.

Look.

And that's absorbent.

Oh, it's absorbent.

So one of the assignment responses that I really liked was Broken Barbie.

So they imprinted a Barbie onto paper.

And it reminded me of this series of works that were half performance, but also prints by Yves Klein, where a woman would take her painted body and press it against a canvas or paper.

It's a complicated thing, because it was a male artist using a woman's body as a brush.

I don't think it's that complicated.

I think it's just sexist.

Yeah, Well.

But it reminded me of that.

It was sort of like taking control in a way that it was kind of a woman claiming control over-- Over Barbie.

JOHN GREEN: So you finished your cork.

It looks really good.

It looks almost textile-like.

I think when you do a repeated pattern, it tends to come across as a fabric.

And one person did do a t-shirt.

So, Sarah, one of the other ones that we both really liked involved tampons.

Yes.

One person dipped unused tampons into red paint, which was an interesting color choice.

And I liked it.

Talking about absorbent material, that's certainly something that can print with better success.

I'm not sure about this.

Cool in theory.

I was so excited.

Sometimes you just have to try it.

But in practice, it doesn't seem like it's as good as tampons.

Oh, yours looks better.

SARAH GREEN: That's OK. JOHN GREEN: Fortunately, I'm still winning.

SARAH GREEN: We also had a great submission of someone who made an impression of their bassoon reed.

And I thought it was really nice that they used something personal.

I liked the bassoon reed because it reflected something about the maker, but also made for a really interesting image.

You're using the word interesting a lot, I noticed.

Ah.

I'm doing bad art critique.

I'm doing the kind of art critique that you specifically told me not to do.

SARAH GREEN: Yeah.

Well, and speaking of items you find valuable, at a few of you did imprints of books.

I brought one that I thought would be OK for us to cut and make an imprint of.

And it is the German edition of "Paper Towns."

"Margos Spuren."

And I feel like if you wrote a book, you have licensed to destroy it.

That is correct.

The reason we chose "Margos Spuren" is because I have several hundred copies of this book.

My publisher, Hanser, has been very kind about sending me lots and lots of them.

Sarah, I can't cut this.

OK.

This feels wrong.

It's painful to watch a book be destroyed.

[grunt] Nope.

It's a really well-made book.

Oh god.

My publisher-- just hold on.

SARAH GREEN: One thing I thought we could talk about is how Sopheap said that there's no real narrative when you're looking at, say, his imprints.

Do you need to make narrative conclusions when you look at an abstract work?

Right?

Like a lot of times people look at a Jackson Pollock's painting or whatever and say, it looks like x or it looks like y.

Or even if you read a wall label-- Oh, oh!

I do think that there's meaning outside of narrative.

This just feels very fragile to me in a beautiful way.

And that's not a narrative experience.

But it is a meaningful one.

It makes me think about fragility and try to understand fragility in my own life.

SARAH GREEN: Well, and it's also kind of freezing the ephemeral.

This stick is something that's going to rot and go away pretty quickly.

But this print may last a little bit longer.

But it will also eventually disintegrate.

Any time you're freezing the ephemeral, you have to think about the fact that you can only freeze it for so long.

Maybe that's part of why it looks fragile to me.

It's beautiful though.

SARAH GREEN: I like it.

JOHN GREEN: Yeah.

What do you think of mine?

SARAH GREEN: [snort] It's-- it's painty.

It's been painted.

[snort] I have completed the assignment.

You have.

No one can say I didn't complete the assignment.

All right.

I'm going to try one more now that I've got it really nice and soggy.

That's not bad.

Yeah, that's nice.

Yeah.

That's a little bit better.

You know Wendy White?

The artist Wendy White?

Yes.

JOHN GREEN: It looks like a really bad version of a Wendy White painting.

It does.

Apologies to Wendy White.

Here's my terrible Wendy White.

We like your work.

Oh, huge fan.

And what are you saying about my work?

It meets expectations.

So we are going to keep making imprints, but we're going to turn off the cameras Yeah, but thanks to everybody who's participated in this art assignment and all the art assignments.

Remember to tag your responses with the art assignment.

And don't forget that you can go to either of our two websites, theartassignment.com or all.theartassignment.com, to see what everybody has done in response to this project.

You just got paint on mine!

I'm very sorry, but this is not easy to work with.