Adam Shield and Thomas Whittle established Long Distance Press in 2013 as a way to solidify their collaborative practice. Working between Glasgow, Newcastle, London and Edinburgh, Long Distance Press first started as a postal art project quickly turning into collaborative works, publications and exhibitions.Together they explore the research, drawing and works on paper that often live at the unseen edges of an artists’ practice.
They have published their own collaborative artworks (Paper Pushers2 (2019), SNIFF SNIFF (2017), Noodeleling (2017) and Paper Pushers (2016)) as well as work by other artists’ (The Secret Life of KH (2019), Lexicon (2019), Take Up Space (2018), Root Like (2016)).
They have organised exhibitions including Greetings, Mauve, Vienna (2019), IMAGE DRUM, The Royal Academy of Arts, London (2019), Drop Shot, MONOMATIC, Edinburgh (2017) and High Five, MONOMATIC (2014).
Long Distance Press organised and produced IMAGE DRUM at the Royal Academy of Arts, London. The exhibition acted as a space for production and discussion, and a space for artists to make new work. Throughout the project, invited artists Sam Austen, Brian Griffiths, Katharina Hoeglinger and Anastasia Pavlou activated workstations, materials and printers, offering visitors a glimpse into the working methods and processes of these artists. The spinning, oscillating, changing nature of the project mimics the image drums, found within printing machines. IMAGE DRUM moves backwards and forwards becoming written over, recharged with ink and replicated in step with the printers present in the space. It explored the patterns inherent in the artist multiple, the rhythmic repetition of the photocopier and the staccato tempo of the stapler.
Long Distance Press acts as a publishing house, artist project, zine factory, exhibition space, commissioning body and image drum.
