Regina refugees’ art project made possible by industrial steamroller

It was an unconventional way of rolling out prints, but an industrial steamroller was the machinery behind a newcomers’ summer art project to celebrate Culture Days in Regina.

Youths from the Regina Open Door Society (RODS) worked with staff from Articulate Ink, a Regina-based printing company, to create an art print that would be pressed with a steamroller.

“We’re steamroller printing, which basically takes a form of print making that we do in our studio on a day-to-day basis and enlarges it to a big scale so we can print it with a steamroller,” co-director Michelle Brownridge explained.

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The theme of the designs revolved around refugees’ impressions of Canada.

Thirteen-year-old Mohammed Quraishi came to Canada eight years ago from India. He drew a flag of India and a Canadian flag connected by an airplane.

“We drew stuff and it was about coming to Canada and what we thought in our daily lives here,” Quraishi said.

“Because I was five, I only remembered saying ‘hello Canada’ and falling asleep,” he remembered.

The designs were drawn on a four-feet by eight-feet wooden board, carved and then covered in black paint. It was then pressed onto a sheet of linen by a steamroller.

RODS youth coordinator Roberto Misterio said the art project helps empower and integrate youths.

He said some of the refugees from Syria and Sudan arrived in Canada just this year.

“I believe this kind of workshop really enables them to express their creativity and arouse their interest in art,” Misterio said.

The printing project is a first for Regina. Brownridge said she had seen steamroller printing in Toronto five years ago.

“We got it from the CAT rental store. They thought it was a really good use of their equipment,” she laughed.

“It’s definitely the first time that we’re doing this. It’s been a dream of ours for quite a few years.”