Lauterwasser
Critical Reflections
I bagan by selecting three objects. I chose accessible, domestic objects. Both man made and natural. I wanted objects that weren’t visually complex and that did not immediatly present a purpose for their existence. I wanted to break away indications that these objects were made and start creating their own independent existence. I wanted them be forms and materials that encourage a tactile interaction, the type of object that could rest easily in you hand.
The objects should be percieved as having an ambiguous origin. I wanted to create a connectivity between them so played with ways of ordering and reordering them. This became an important part of the process and introduced a performative element that was captured directly and indirectly in some of the images. I handled the objects carefully, they were kept in a fabric bag while being transported. At home they were laid out in a series at the table where we ate. Over the course of this project I repeated and modified the actions and the way I documented the objects.
For a series of days, before dawn and after dusk I assembled a simple scene consisting of the three objects. It was done outside in order to emphasis the changing natural light. Initially I placed them equidistantly with the aim of creating an equality between them. The changing light also acted as a catalyst for this. As the light changed what was hidden and what was revealed changed, in turn they affected each other and the space as a whole. There was a ritualistic nature to the process, it was dark and quiet and felt removed from my usual schedule. This sense of being outside of a ususal time and space was something I wanted to integrate in the images as I developed them.
I documented the scenes using photography and drawing.
I started to feel an intimacy with the objects. Sunrise and sunset are times in our lives that accompany experiences of closeness or intimacy. I wanted to galvanize this sense of intimacy between the objects in the images I was creating.
I emphasised the time based qualities of the camera in order to reveal qualities of the scene that changed over time; Timer settings (a photo every 30 seconds over 180 minutes); Aperture (low aperture settings to prolong the time over which I could capture a single image), this stayed at a fixed value so images taken in darker conditions took longer than those in daylight.
At a certain point I started using a density filter to simulate changing light conditions so I could work outside of the predetermined times. I also got a camera remote in order to continue acting on the scene without removing myself to operate the camera dirtectly.
I wanted to present enough figurative ‘evidence’ so that a sense of environment could be placed together but not enough to evoke clear of specific objects and place. I wanted to evoke a memory that was external to the viewer’s experience and that remained just out of reach. I like the idea that the image is not constructed for the viewer and that the narrative key to the image is missing.
The connection between the objects is visualised in different ways, through overlaying and negative space, in the breakdown of shape and the boundaries where shapes meet. These techniques were captured as they happened, this was particualrly evident in the longer exposures, and gave a sense of the passing of time in the image.
I began preparing plates of these images for photopolymer etching on steel. I liked the steel as it held a low level tone accross the etched parts of the plate in a way that zinc doesn't. I felt that this would hold the images toegther in relation to the more granular disonant elements.
Images were prepared in a single tone, in negative at 120 dpi, this clarified areas of an image for the mechanical process but also retained the grain and gradation that was integral to the nature of the works. The artworks were digitally printed onto transparent film, exposed on a silkscreen at which point stopout varnish was printed through the screen onto the steel plate.
When I came to processing the photos on the computer I noticed small collections of brightly coloured pixels on the image previews. As soon as I opened the image on Photoshop these disappeared, they were identified and removed automatically. These areas are referred to as ‘hot pixels’ and are caused by electrical charges that leak into the sensor wells of the camera. I was interested that these were evident at longer exposures. When the camera was set to capture more time based information this would occur more accutely. I decided that I would include this artefact, it created a layer in front or behind the image and created an awareness of looking that drew the viewer back from the figurative elements..
I was interested in elements that had could cause dissonance in an image and how this could be used as a tool for challenging the viewer and encouraging further examination. I wanted to create an interplay between what was revealed and what was hidden.
With this in mind I began further manipulating the images digitally. I did this by introducing strange or conflicting perspectives, breaking down the edges of shapes and suggesting that something was being revealed beneath the image. By using these tools I wanted to encourage the viewer to find their own way through the images and create their own vocabulary.
I also projected the exitsting imagery back onto the physical objects. Initially I projected still imagery, then I projected a series of images, sequentially and collectively as a contact sheet. The light of the projector picked out areas of a scene that had been previously less evident and parts of objects were overlayed over themselves or each other. The images were folding back over themselves and creating a new imagined environment in which they existed.
I was interested in using the contact sheet as a colleborative tool as another way of creating an environment. This led me to consider how creating an artificial environment (an environment that does not conform to real world rules of perspective and vanishing points) affects the way that the works are read and gives possibilities to construct scenes that subvert our expectations of space. In creating conflicting rules like this our intepretation of the other elements within an image are brought into question.
I am interested in the idea of shared environments, in how seperate elements can connect to make a new space, and how states of change can affect an environment and the things inhabiting an environment. By documenting a changing space over time a record or memory of that space is presented and experienced.
I was interested in presenting enough figurative evidence that a sense of environment could be placed together but not enough to evoke clear of specific objects and place. I wanted to evoke something that was just out of reach of the viewer.
I started to introduce artifical planes, grid lines and vanishing points in the works. I was interested in how these can be used to affect scale and subvert expectations around space and surroundings. It also allowed connections to be made between elements and create an equality between them. I liked the idea that a framework beneth the images was being exposed. The images reveal only partially what they are figuratively, in this sense there is a confusion in reading them, in contrast the grid is a rigid structure that provides certainty and support. This dissonance encourages the viewer to find something that may not be figuratively present.
I was interested in how increasing scale would affect the images. I began preparing imagery for a large relief print. By printing the block by hand the limitations on scale were less so than with etching. I wanted to preserve the aesthetic I had developed up to this point so I decided to lasercut the images from digital files, rather than cut them by hand. I ran tests on small areas, laser cutting on paper and plywood. Despite sanding the surface of the ply beforehand the grain was still recognisable. I decided to integrate this into the images, to create movement through them and connect areas within the image as I had been doing already using other methods.
I created a series of works focussed on scale. The images that worked best retained large areas of space, it helped preserve an interplay between what is revealed and what is hidden. At scale the environments were more experiencial, whereas the previous smaller works felt like a record or miniturised view of something, the large works reached out and encouraged a more direct response.
The increased scale also made it possible to creater more complexity in the composition of the images. By breaking them down and wrapping parts of them around artificial planes I created caverns and surfaces that broke the image apart and built it into something more connected. I wanted to encourage the eye up through the images, this helped to create sequential spaces through which similar configurations of shapes could move and repeat.
During the process of printing I decided to print a series of identical images onto a single sheet. This was another way of articulating the sequential and time based language I had been using. The work was displayed hung from the ceiling, draped over a table and trailed onto the floor. Folds, changes of angle and shadows broke the image up and created a progression through the work, each of the three identical images became distinct.
