phonomenology

I realized that these are not only records of objects, both as a photogram of a direct object and also the negative, but the papers serve as a record of the day, time, and weather conditions. I started about half way through writing the date, time, and temperature on the back of the paper before setting them out.  One more way of including the hand of the artist!

It has been a strange fall/winter. We had no snow for the longest time and then finally a big bit for Thanksgiving. Back to the strange weather - it was 41 degrees and then started raining just a week later.

I had put out several papers to expose in the sun on the top of the canoe. Sometimes (there is so little daylight normally) when it has been extremely cloudy I leave them overnight to get the first possible sun the next day. In this case it rained the next 4 days. I left the papers since some of the ones were the very fragile paper stock that would rip when wet. Guess what? Then it got cold and the papers iced up and stuck to the metal of the canoe. So I left them again in the hopes that they would a) thaw b) get some sun.

I finally had to take them off (they did thaw) because we were slated for a huge storm. Well the storm went to the south of us so we only got about 6". But it had been extremely cloudy for almost a week after the 4 days of rain. So the papers have seen very little sun.

From T.S. Eliot’s The Four Quartets:
You say I am repeating
Something I have said before. I shall say it again.
Shall I say it again? In order to arrive there,
To arrive where you are, to get from where you are not,
You must go by a way wherein there is no ecstasy.
In order to arrive at what you do not know
You must go by a way which is the way of ignorance.
In order to possess what you do not possess
You must go by the way of dispossession.
In order to arrive at what you are not
You must go through the way in which you are not.
And what you do not know is the only thing you know
And what you own is what you do not own
And where you are is where you are not.

Rundown to the next residency

It has been a lot of work trying to get a huge set of papers burned and printed. I'm trying to close the gap now with some final pieces. It gets harder with little actual sunlight as the UV light only takes a few papers at a time. Unlike the yard which I can lay out several at once.

I will have a few more photos soon. But right now I've been putting in somewhere around 30 hrs a week on these things and I'm just about done. I haven't counted yet but I know I'm running out of storage room!

The latest writing is getting posted here - the artist statement. If I get a chance I'll try to link up the other papers.

I'd like to mention to anyone reading that if you are working along any of these lines, I'd love to hear from you. Let me know what you've tried and how it's going or what you're ideas are!

Artist Statement

 

In examining the meaning and expectation of what a photograph is, this work creates a tension and confusion in the viewer. Meaning comes from seeking to understand and organize the pieces as if a puzzle, making the viewer implicit in the work.

 

In the Haystack series there are multiple readings and several levels of associations that make the certainty of what it is even harder to pin down. This deliberate confusion invites questions, provokes reactions, and realigns thought patterns. By choosing to deny the traditional beauty, image, and preciousness of earlier photographic traditions, tension is introduced along a tight line of understanding and misunderstanding. Puzzling out meaning and re-aligning the idea of what constitutes a photograph is elemental in my work. 

 

Making marks

In a photographic sense I have been making marks on paper by burning and slashing the paper and then adding cyanotype to create a print.

 

 

 

 

Not only each paper receives the coating differently and responds to the varying amount of light I expose it to, but each type of paper gives a different result also.

 

To construct the final piece I need to make many more so back to work we go.....!

 

Works

I have been working with different papers. This is several burned and torn pieces of white Kraft paper using cyanotype.

 

Because these papers are not traditional water media when rinsed in the final step of the cyanotype they became too fragile and tore easily. Having burned them in the beginning the paper fibers were so weak in some cases that the whole paper tore into one giant gaping hole. To remedy that I began to sew a simple repair.

It was during my reading of Lyle Rexer's Photography's Antiquarian Avant-Garde: the New Wave in Old Process that I read about Bea Nettles using a sewing machine. I have seen her work and cookbook but didn't realize she had been shut out of the all male darkroom due to using a sewing machine.

I enjoy the additional feminist element. I hate that images and ideas can be classified or read as domestic or feminine. That of course is another issue of the baggage that all of us bring to what we see, hear, and think which I need to leave for some future time.

I have a lot more reading to do so I will leave now with this view 

 

Some writings

Here are something that I have wanted to post but have been busy and have not found time for until now.
My mentor Susan Dunkerley Maquire had me write out a description/evaluation of several pieces I showed her. This was an exacting exercise which I took a long time over. It was very interesting in how it developed the awareness of the pieces.

This piece with a semi-representational figure was not followed up much through the rest of my time working with the cyanotypes. I have spent quite a deal more time on creating the imageless pieces I have posted and will update later. This figurative image was done before the intense reading of Uta Barth that I was doing. I had been looking into the idea of traces and loss of complete image as a way to explore how memory works and sometimes fails. Reading Uta Barth and her idea of seeing tied into my exploration into highlighting how we look.

Here then is the description of one image.
Description of #4.

 

This is a traditional landscape format with a single female figure in a soft palette of pale to mid-tone blues. The isolation of the subject framed by fragile tree branches sets a lonely distancing tone. The lack of distinct and specific detail in the image area immediately challenges a fast traditional reading of a representational photograph.

The paper buckles and warps generating a depth that contradicts the traditional flat plane of photographic papers. The image is blurry and blocky where the figure and face should be, this loss of information raises questions about the meaning as well as reinforcing the feeling and depth of isolation.

The texture of the paper is evident not only in the in the paper’s rough surface but in its thickness which can be seen when the edges buckle. The uneven color coating is also another element of texture while referencing photography’s traditional use of light (and dark). Irregular staining creates blemishes in several areas of the paper, indicating the hand of the artist and adding an element of chance to the process. This milky sense of a veil separates the gaze of the viewer from a traditional engagement or entrance to photography.

Together these features create a piece that challenges expectations of what photography means.  

Fire

Just to keep you updated. I have shown a few of the beginnings of this new series. In exploring the cyanotype, I am using chance as well as planning to make these images.

You can see the marks on the paper from burning. I also have cut several to see how they will react/form after rinsing when I hang them to dry.

Here you can see the coating I spread over the paper. This is to help create a starch layer to give added color so the cyanotype doesn't sink into the paper too deep. And with that I have added a salt resist.

This is a finished piece (minus the burning) with a salt resist.

 

As you can see they are really removed from the traditional representation images associated with photography. I hope to get into the readings I've been doing later. Right now if you are interested the books to read are by Lyle Rexer. Very informative and they say all the things I've been thinking but hadn't put into words yet!