Monoprint

As a young artist back in the 1980s I worked part-time at our local daily newspaper in Wellington, New Zealand loading bundles of papers onto the back of delivery trucks.

In the belly of the building were the printing presses manned by Polynesian workers. They did it tough. It was a hot, noisy, airless room and they’d be covered in black ink. These men worked long, inky hours to support their families both in New Zealand and their extended families back home in the Islands.

Sometimes they made hats out of newspaper to protect their hair. Yet despite the brutal working conditions and ongoing financial stresses they remained smiling and accepting.

I have always seen people as equal no matter their genetic composition. In working with these men I observed the way many others did not share this view. I saw them ignored, ill-regarded, patronised and underpaid. While Paper Men was created in 1988, these artworks remain relevant in today’s Black Lives Matter movement towards racial equality.

Konstantin Dimopoulos

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