All Eyes to DeceiveTruth
High Distinction
Alternative Photographic Practices Artist Statement
My series ‘All Eyes to Deceive Truth’ comprises of six chemigrams using experimental techniques inspired by the photogram process in the darkroom. My work correlates with abstraction, painting with light, mystery and speculate. This series is an abstract work that encourages viewers to try and piece together and make sense of what they can see. It will stimulate that natural human desire for understanding and meaning. This concept was inspired by Dan Estabrook and the “hidden secrets” motif he carried in his work. The works are cropped square as a continuation this idea. There is no ‘right way up,’ it is for the audience to decide.
This abstraction goes hand in hand with mystery and the speculatory freedom. Viewers have to make sense of the shapes and see their own variation of the work. I’ll liken it to how we stare up at the clouds and all make out a different shape. There is a mystery to these abstract shapes and onlookers are encourages to speculate what forms they take to. The desire to create a work with fine line details, completely away from the traditional use of photographic technology was inspired by Daisuke Yokotas work with chemigrams that appeared to me like oil on water.
The chemigram methodology used to create them further disguised the true material used. Ironically, the truth is much more mundane than the imaginative shapes and figures people can see in the works. The truth is simply glad wrap. This technique could be further developed by casing a negative through the lightbox, so parts of an image appeared, but for a first iteration, leaving more up to the audience, and more abstraction was the key intention behind this series.
Finally, painting with light, the interaction the light has with the developer has created these unique, one-of-a-kind prints. By lightly coating glad wrap with developer, and placing it under a light, the light has only marked where the developer had contact with the paper. Each print used the same piece of glad wrap, and the organic shapes were a one take process. I wasn’t looking for perfection, as it’s up to the audience to decide what is and isn’t perfect in this work.
