#a visual representation of the memories of the dead falling into the void

[meepmoopdraws2]

These are my rushed thoughts for the people who are anti-gay Eddie as someone who wholeheartedly believes that he is.

The main argument I see against supporting Eddie Diaz as a queer-coded character, and or that his arc isn’t right to evolve in the direction of making him canonically gay comes in several different shades of “we need to see more healthy platonic relationships between men represented in media.”

That sentiment holds value, and it holds weight because it’s accurate. There is no way to negate the need to see that kind of representation or to seek it out within the characters, or stories we love the most.

The root that leads the search for that kind of representation stems from the real societal pressure that in order for men to be man-enough they should throw their hands up in surrender to society’s void and walk its narrow path. The rusty warnings along the way deem that a fall is deadly, that in a blazing fire it is safest to breathe smoke; that should another man intervene and hold an extinguisher to those flames it works best at a distance. Walk alone, walk far, hold on but not too tight.

Stand at attention. A strong man does not weep. A strong man will provide. A strong man knows God’s name. A strong man shouldn’t feel too deeply. Won’t feel too deeply. Can’t feel too deeply. A strong man will do what’s right, and what needs to be done.

Eddie’s characterization is vast. The show explores the layers that make up each individual piece of his identity, and with each passing year it uncovers more of what he’s tried hardest to bury.

Eddie is a man who grew up navigating that path, walking it over and over until its direction was nothing but wishful thinking-hoping it’ll carry him far enough and muscle memory-that it will regardless. Such a rigid path would let him continue onward should he find his eyes shut. A walk might not find itself a tedious task until its direction is challenged, and Eddie is a man who walks forward. This is a man who’d crawl for miles before stopping to acknowledge his hands and knees were scraped raw.

It’s a ‘manmade’ path. A path carved through repetition. At any cost he was always going to walk forward in complete darkness.

Eddie wouldn’t stop until he finally had visual of the curves in his path-curves someone had created trailing by his side. What could slow his stride other than that which holds Eddie’s heart sane?

His son is perfect-his son will always be perfect. He’ll grow up to be a strong man. Shouldn’t feel too deeply. Can’t feel too deeply. Won’t feel too deeply.

What is it that holds Eddie’s heart sane?

What is it that makes a man strong?

The hardest moments on the show come when Eddie questions how he could ever call himself a man if he were let his son trail that narrow path behind him, and when he realizes how long he may have been.

This is a man who spent his entire life conforming to fit the wrong definition of strength and man whilst equating the two. Every step he takes to fit a certain narrative weighs him down and sends cracks up the walls he has relied on so heavily to stand tall. Though with every shockwave those walls are bound to cave in.

When Eddie moved away from home he finally found footing in a few different directions. Choosing love slowed his pace. Watching his chosen family in colour could stop him dead in his tracks.

There is beauty in vulnerability. To share love, light, and laughter; to cry, scream and hurt. To have someone, illuminate the best parts of life, and dim the worst. To watch the people he cares the most about exist freely and proudly. To change and regress and grow and change again. To find truth through the broken and mended shards of love that others hold still for him when he can’t find his grip.

Bobby and Michael; Chimney and Bobby; Bobby and Eddie; Eddie and Chimney, Buck and Chimney; Buck and Bobby; Albert and Buck; Chimney and Ravi; Eddie and Buck.

“We need to see more healthy platonic relationships between men represented in media.” Its found in a blended family, its found in chosen family, its found in brotherhood, and its found in partnership, its found in friendship.

To open and close and open again. To bury and uncover and bury, bury deep. To see clearly, find hope and take on change. To know love as unconditional. To realize what you know is no longer what you see. To know that the path you’re expected to walk is not what makes you who you are. That rather, the life you choose, the people you choose, the hearts you hold closest are inherently what carve out what makes up your own.

To see “healthy platonic relationships between men,” and know that it doesn’t change who they are. That the best relationships will only uncover deeper parts of yourself including the ones you didn’t know you were allowed to show. Because, what if being vulnerable doesn’t make you a certain way… what if it just shows you how to be true?

Using that kind of representation against the widely held head-canon that Eddie Diaz is queer-coded becomes homophonic rhetoric when it is found through dozens of men who love, and respect one another without any romantic undertone. To turn around, and actively put the continued search for that representation on the narrow path you fight against is where MY issue lies.

Eddie Diaz is a man who is still walking forward continuing to carve out a path that is bound to crumble.

To uncover the beauty in truth and error. To find connection with other men, and find closeness with another man. To watch the exploration and normalcy of love. To uncover that there is no set path. To know he gets to be who he is as he is, that trying to fit a certain narrative will only ever break his heart over and over and over again. Eddie can find his truth, but he’ll find it when he realizes it’s always been present.

What if uncovering the truest parts of himself doesn’t make him gay? What if he has a close vulnerable relationship with his best friend and it doesn’t make him gay? But what if after everything he’s shoved down and repressed and unmasked-what if he so happens to be gay? I would think that doesn’t mean he’s not man enough anymore? If Eddie were to realize he had fallen in love with his best friend does that mean that their vulnerability shared platonically in the past didn’t count? Does Eddie being gay mean his journey to find what it is to be a man is void? Does Eddie’s potential queerness eliminate the past elements of platonic vulnerability on the show? Did Buck’s?

There is beauty in vulnerability but the best man knows there is power in acceptance.

Accepting others. Accepting yourself. Accepting the truth as it comes.

If that truth is queer-coded to such a large demographic why is it so unsettling?

A man’s journey to find what it means to be strong despite the void of society’s narrow path is not devalued by his potential queerness.

[preshtagonist]

Marble hornets!stuck thoughts bc its that time of night again and talking into the void of shit nobody cares abt is my thing and bc this has been brewing in my head for half a year now i think? Some of these are disconnected thoughts and concepts that dont work together

their session is a horribly glitched out seemingly void session where the white queen and black queen were not separate entities (may also include black king and white king idk!) (this is the operator)

This entity is also their first guardian. Lord english esque in how it perpetuates its own creation (yknow how arasol found the code for sgrub. I think it does smth similar w tapes or some other method. Arg to find your sburb disc loser) and in how it seems almost to have always been present in the life of tim (you know) and alex (birthday video)

Possibility: Alex discovered the sburb code or whatever the mechanism was and tried to hide it thinking it would prevent the apocalypse from happening. It doesnt and never would have. Jay finds them i think (maybe for a while alex blames jay for the apocalypse bc he couldnt keep his goddamn nose out of it)

as an amalgam of four game constructs (WQ BQ BK WK) it is considered the exile of the main four (alex, brian, tim, and jay) and indirectly fucks them via “commands” on the computer terminal. Tims pills run interference for whatever reason.

Brian (as hoodie) eventually gains access to his terminal and occasionally through “hacking”, the terminals of the other four guys. TTA brainblasts you w audio visual hallucinations sometimes

Jessica, seth, amy, and sarah have “normal” exiles. Thank god

Heres a fucked up thought: tim and alex have opposing views on initiating the scratch. Who is on what side probably requires a more nuanced understanding of their characters than what i have but heres an attempt to pick a side for each and figure out reasoning:

So first of all neither character has a perfect understanding of what the scratch truly is or how it works. They do not have a doc scratch or trolls to yell at them for universe cancer so there is no real way for them to have a full picture of the implications of doing this.

alex is actually for NOT initiating the scratchz his reaction to finding out they “caused” the end of the world (or more accurately were harbingers of that end) is “we all deserve to die.”, heavily rooted in christian/cartholic (i am tired sorry for conflating the two) guilt for what i hope are Obvious Reasons and the whole “you need to kill everyone and then yourself” thing. Additionally does not believe the scratch will destroy the operator (he is right) so trapping it in this dead universe is the best they can do in his eyes (he can not actually hope to trap it). Sees them all as infected by it but ESPECIALLY Tim as “the source” (why? I dont know. I think it favored him as a doom player. Tim being a doom player also makes him the most literally representation of everything alex hates and resents about the situation).

Tim is for initiating the scratch. He believes that the scratch will wipe out the operator for good (it wont). I had mlre thoughts on this but i got sjdetracked sorry

Jessica survives the scratch somehow

Maybe she is hidden away by tim before the scratch starts, maybe he even is able to hide with her from it? Would imply tim knows the scratch is surviveable and thus the operator could escape from it but would also reflect how his self preservation kind of outweighs any desire to be a martyr unlike alex. Tim Will Survive a la final girl? I had better ways of expressing this thought but i lost it. If you look at this and say “you dont know what youre talking about” you are so correct

Either way, due to tims planning or a glitch in their already buggy session, she falls through the fabric of spacetime and into the new universe but loses all her memories/has a fuzzy recollection.

If tim does survive this could explain how she is able to be situated in a universe where she should not exist (he got everything arranged the way sburb guardians (non first ones) would)

This is how marble hornets comic happens and that cast would get involved

Have you considered skully sprite for your troubles. Yes? Okay i dont have a more developed thought than that i spedread the comics from excitement and did. Not internalize the meaningful stuff bc im small brained

….i just rmbrd the ^2sprites and. Thinking sbt that in relation to skullysprite is… yeah id be wanting to fix the broken too if i was an amalgam of several dead bodies shoved into a sprite in this timeline (maybe)

Obviously real skuly is more than that but i dont fully understand them so. Ack

Anyway this sessions FOR SURE players are jessica, taylor, adam (who i ALWAYS tag as seth bc i dont have a BRAIN) and david (and skully! In a way)

Adam kills david during the session. I know it in my heart. Bastard >:(

I cant think of anything else good night

[starsoverthehorizon]

Even more deletions today, this time hitting ALL of the twitter account and the youtube channel (videos indicated as being private).

I’ve received copies of all pertinent videos (except for L Ast, que sera sera), so it’s not end-of-the-world... and this is probably part of the ARG....

Still anathema to my archivist mentality.

[limejuicer1862]

*

My goal in life is the destruction of 5G masts. I cut my sandwich into triangles as a lower-middle class pretension. Back outside, my window, one time, a cream room, a view of the street’s antenna. The problem with David Lynch is how he makes too much sense. Back in the simulacrum, a boy, my age, rangers in North America, first as tragedy, then as… ironing out our balaclavas, filling out our milk bottles; backpacks unattended on park benches, on the bus.

*

A page of Baudrillard, hides the truth to view witnesses fraying little by little into ruins, discernible ruined empire, rotting carcass of the soil double ends simulation, this fabled second-order no longer that of a territory, no longer saturated, a hyperreal map one must

return without origin, shreds unusable a questionable sovereign difference – the charm abstraction, the coextensivity of poetry, the representation produced no imaginary. Operational, in fact, no longer memory radiating synthesis, no space without atmosphere, no worse

curvature. Imitation, nor duplication; leaving room for simulated liquidation.

-Alex Mazey

.the title changes.

there is too much interference things could be left alone things were alright anyway

the battery is low yet plugged in the radio buzzes.

things are distorted

so i did what he says, whilst running up and down the stairs.

source to av, only there aint no av, not on that one anyhow.

press my scart lead, that is probably it.

press the sky button, the sky does not respond.

we still has television snow.

mine are bifocal and can distort gently if i concentrate poorly on the centre i have had help a while grateful at least that i can see unlike some of my family

yesterday I watched a documentary about monkeys

-sonja benskin mesher

The new starboard

Our larvae split their skin in the signal-fry, warmed over by the wire-witched currents of one filigree moon in a hundredweight sky

and if we no longer see the stars how do they counsel a chart for a new grub, or pull a blood’s spirit-iron toward the dissolving north

and if we no longer feel these waves how may we know our own water, what deeps us for the giddy bubble of this sailing. And I know

there are rocks here still, they make chimneys of it to vent everything we can’t burn railing sparks against the sky- silver that meshes none of our tides true

and it will rain hot tonight, the sizzle pelting the new hatchlings

-Ankh Spice

Of Forest And Stick

Foe forest, faux forest fee-fi-fo forest. Where giants hurl their broken stories from broadcast heaven to stone cast ground. Real, this least of things.

Inarticulate metal arms pluck down your dreams, to place within the flakes of soul slow dying desiccation.

Sick insects wave. These metal poles sway clamped to roof and breast.

All point as one, their martyr fingers show. As minds walk psychotic in their circular days.

To stars and planets that orbit our night sleep late night drunk deep on their celestial milky ways.

Antennae wave hello. Behind smudged glass walls as we sit and stare into this aquarium hell of our own making.

As we spread across our furniture of forked cartons, plastic and messy despair We start to take on our corrupt story.

https://thewombwellrainbow.files.wordpress.com/2020/05/of-forest-and-stick.m4a

© Dai Fry 4th May 2020.

Reception

Quiet the cluttered airways. Listen. Too many voices reaching skyward, Clamoring for reception, Propelling selfhood upward,

Destroys collaborative Synergy. And interference causes failure. After all, Man-made towers were only Ever meant to fall.

https://thewombwellrainbow.files.wordpress.com/2020/05/reception.m4a

-st

Every Stem Is

an aerial, antennae whose signal carries an image and a sound of growth and bloom.

Leaves are directors, flagellum, reach out, test the air and vibrations.

Listen can your hear the messages, or is it distorted,

image overlaid on image, sound overlaid on sound?

It processes fake news, phishing and cyber attacks. discerns real from false. scents and trails.

A filter bubble, an information sceptic decides what diminishes it, what makes it grow.

what makes it turn towards warmth, towards brightness.

More than a conduit.

-Paul Brookes

effluorescence

concrete flowerbed: aluminium amaranths dream of fecund earth

-Rich Follett

These gray structures loom Like a dead alloy forest A mill’s epitaph

-Carrie Ann Golden

The Arrival (EEN)

Blue eclipse sudden shudder silver vibrations strange sensations mauve hues silent screams shattered dreams rainbow screams black void bleak skies pink cries identity hides no way out seek beware who goes there wait stop where no here why there marble hush turquoise crush hide smile cry illusion confusion static wailing connections failing conscience melting blood moon a light alight powder dawn seek destroy rebuild regenerate no rescue failed sight emerald night pyramid flight incoming yellow tongue purple feast horrible sightings a drone atone leave us alone lavender glass chards charge cut chaos comet rush – Reverse

https://thewombwellrainbow.files.wordpress.com/2020/05/the-arrival-een-mp3.mp3

The Arrival (TWEE)

Falling earth new birth cosmic boom blast break away descend evacuate take position brace brave pathetic beast eject object reject investigate attack no way back hold blinding strobe light up get up move no room fire storm go swerve dive testing resting make haste chase erase record a face strange days delete reboot reverse rethink incoming homecoming survive surrender sharp solar bursts the thirst implosion ration succession orchestration new nation sinking earth toxic rebirth black hole tar soul screeching silence severed signals strange sour suns

https://thewombwellrainbow.files.wordpress.com/2020/05/the-arrival-twee-mp3.mp3

-Don Beukes

Bios and Links

-Alex Mazey

(b.1991) received his MA (distinction) from Keele University in 2017. He later won The Roy Fisher Prize for Poetry with his debut pamphlet, ‘Bread and Salt’ (Flarestack, TBA). He was also the recipient of a Creative Future Writers’ Award in 2019. His poetry has featured regularly in anthologies and literary press magazines, most notably in The London Magazine. His collection of essays, ‘Living in Disneyland’, will be available from Broken Sleep Books in October 2020. Alex spent 2018 as a resident of The People’s Republic of China, where he taught the English Language in a school run by the Ministry of Education. His writing has been described as ‘wry and knowing,’ with ‘an edge that tears rather than cuts or deals blows.’

Twitter: @AlexzanderMazey

Instagram: alexmazey

Here is my interview of Alex:

https://thewombwellrainbow.com/2018/12/18/wombwell-rainbow-interviews-alex-mazey/

-Rich Follett

is a High School English and Creative Writing teacher who has been writing poems and songs for more than forty years. His poems have been featured in numerous online and print journals, including BlazeVox, The Montucky Review, Paraphilia, Leaf Garden Press and the late Felino Soriano’s CounterExample Poetics, for which he was a featured artist. Three volumes of poetry, Responsorials (with Constance Stadler), Silence, Inhabited, and Human &c. are available through NeoPoiesis Press (www.neopoiesispress.com.)

As a singer-songwriter, Rich has released five albums of independent contemporary folk music. His latest. Somewhere in the Stars, is available at http://www.richfollett.com. He lives with his wife Mary Ruth Alred Follett in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia, where he also pursues his interests as a professional actor, playwright, and director.

-Ankh Spice

is a sea-obsessed poet from Aotearoa (NZ). His poetry has appeared in a wide range of international publications and has twice been nominated for the Pushcart Prize. He truly believes that words have the power to change the place we’re in, and you’ll find him doing his best to prove it on

Twitter: @SeaGoatScreams or on Facebook: @AnkhSpiceSeaGoatScreamsPoetry

-Carrie Ann Golden

is a deafblind writer from the mystical Adirondack Mountains now living on a farmstead in northeastern North Dakota. She writes dark fiction and poetry. Her work has been published in places like Piker Press, Edify Fiction, Doll Hospital Journal, The Hungry Chimera, GFT Press, Asylum Ink, and Visual Verse.

-sonja benskin mesher

born , Bournemouth.

now

lives and works in North Wales as an independent artist

‘i am a multidisciplinary artist, crafting paint, charcoal, words and whatever comes to hand, to explain ideas and issues

words have not come easily. I draw on experience, remember and write. speak of a small life’.

Elected as a member of the Royal Cambrian Academy and the United Artists Society The work has been in solo exhibitions through Wales and England, and in selected and solo worldwide. Much of the work is now in both private, and public collections, and has been featured in several television documentaries, radio programmes and magazines.

Here is my interview of sonja benskin mesher:

https://thewombwellrainbow.com/2018/10/16/wombwell-rainbow-interviews-sonja-benskin-mesher/

-Samantha Terrell

is an American poet whose work emphasizes emotional integrity and social justice. She is the author of several eBooks including, Learning from Pompeii, Coffee for Neanderthals, Disgracing Lady Justice and others, available on smashwords.com and its affiliates.Chapbook: Ebola (West Chester University Poetry Center, 2014)

Website: poetrybysamantha.weebly.com Twitter: @honestypoetry

Here is my 2020 interview of her:

https://thewombwellrainbow.com/2020/04/08/wombwell-rainbow-interviews-samantha-terrell/

-Don Beukes

is a South African and British writer. He is the author of ‘The Salamander Chronicles’ (CTU) and ‘Icarus Rising-Volume 1’ (ABP), an ekphrastic collection. He taught English and Geography in both South Africa and the UK. His poetry has been anthologized in numerous collections and translated into Afrikaans, Persian, French and Albanian. He was nominated by Roxana Nastase, editor of Scarlet Leaf Review for the ‘Best of the Net’ in 2017 as well as the Pushcart Poetry Prize (USA) in 2016. He was published in his first SA Anthology ‘In Pursuit of Poetic Perfection’ in 2018 (Libbo Publishers) and his second ‘Cape Sounds’ in 2019 (Gavin Joachims Publishing). He is also an amateur photographer and his debut Photographic publication appeared in Spirit Fire Review in June 2019. His new book, ‘Sic Transit Gloria Mundi’/Thus Passes the Glory of this World’ is due to be published by Concrete Mist Press.

Here is my interview of Don Beukes:

https://thewombwellrainbow.com/2019/11/02/wombwell-rainbow-interviews-don-beukes/

-Dai Fry

is an old new poet. He worked in social care but now has no day job. A keen photographer and eater of literature and lurid covers. Fascinated by nature, physics, pagans, sea and storm. His poetry seeks to capture image and tell philosophical tales. Published in Black Bough Poetry, Re-Side, The Hellebore Press and the Pangolin Review. He can be seen reading on #InternationalPoetryCircle and regularly appears on #TopTweetTuesday. Twitter. @thnargg Web seekingthedarklight.co.uk

Audio/Visual. @IntPoetryCircle #InternationalPoetryCircle Twitter #TopTweetTuesday

-Paul Brookes

is a shop asst. Lives in a cat house full of teddy bears. His chapbooks include The Fabulous Invention Of Barnsley, (Dearne Community Arts, 1993). The Headpoke and Firewedding (Alien Buddha Press, 2017), A World Where and She Needs That Edge (Nixes Mate Press, 2017, 2018) The Spermbot Blues (OpPRESS, 2017), Port Of Souls (Alien Buddha Press, 2018), Please Take Change (Cyberwit.net, 2018), Stubborn Sod, with Marcel Herms (artist) (Alien Buddha Press, 2019), As Folk Over Yonder ( Afterworld Books, 2019). Forthcoming Khoshhali with Hiva Moazed (artist), Our Ghost’s Holiday (Final book of threesome “A Pagan’s Year”) . He is a contributing writer of Literati Magazine and Editor of Wombwell Rainbow Interviews.

-Mary Frances

is an artist and writer based in the UK. She takes a few photos every day, for inspiration and to use in her work. The images for this project were all taken in the last two years on walks during in the month of May. Her words and images have been published by Penteract Press, Metambesen, Ice Floe Press, Burning House Press, Inside the Outside, Luvina Rivista Literaria, and Lone Women in Flashes of Wilderness. Twitter: @maryfrancesness

-James Knight

is an experimental poet and digital artist. His books include Void Voices (Hesterglock Press) and Self Portrait by Night (Sampson Low). His visual poems have been published in several places, including the Penteract Press anthology Reflections and Temporary Spaces (Pamenar Press). Chimera, a book of visual poems, is due from Penteract Press in July 2020.

Website: thebirdking.com.

Twitter: @badbadpoet

Here is my interview of James Knight:

https://thewombwellrainbow.com/2019/01/06/wombwell-rainbow-interviews-james-knight/

-Sue Harpham

is an admin worker, currently not in work Married, 2 sons. Loves poetry and words. She considers herself a writer of scribble rather than a poet. She has written a novel and is using her spare time to finally get it published (self-publishing) which has been an ambition of her for the last 10 years.

Welcome to a special ekphrastic challenge for May. Artworks from Mary Frances, James Knight and Sue Harpham will be the inspiration for writers, Alex Mazey, Ankh Spice, Samantha Terrell, Dai Fry, Carrie Ann Golden, sonja benskin mesher, Rich Follett, Don Beukes and myself. May 5th. * My goal in life is the destruction of 5G masts. I cut my sandwich into triangles as a lower-middle class pretension.

[melanieking-blog1]

Parallax: Perspectives in Astronomy and Photography

An article on art & science collaborations for Interalia Magazine, November 2017. Over the past decade, I have been exploring the links between science, photography and philosophy. This body of research has involved collaborations between myself and a number of scientific institutions, such as UCL and Imperial College London.

I am currently undertaking a practice-based MPhil at the Royal College of Art which specifically focuses on the relationship between photography, visual language and astronomy. What can photographic practice and theory contribute to the field of astronomy, and vice versa? The definitions of parallax help us to understand that viewing one object from a number of different perspectives can offer a more accurate reading. I posit that obtaining a deeper knowledge of the links between astronomy and photography can help us to understand more about both fields.

In this article, I will share a number of collaborations with scientific institutions that have led to developments in my own research, and further afield.

Preservation of Memory

Preservation of Memory, Silver Gelatin Emulsion on Paper, 2012. In 2012, I took part in a residency with the MRC Anatomical Neuropharmacology Unit at Oxford University, initiated by Dr Megan Dowie. My project at the laboratory explored the relationship between photography and memory, focusing on the extensive practice of preservation methods used to store a piece of biological tissue in formaldehyde for future reference. These processes reminded me of the photographic processes I use to preserve an image when printing an analogue photograph in a darkroom.

In the laboratory, I was interested in how the scientists were hoping to capture an exact picture of the brain activity of a specimen. However, when the specimen is killed there is a small amount of time before death where the brain activity alters, aware that it is dying. This means that although the specimen is aware of its’ own death, thus slightly changing the result, the data is still useful for the scientists to build up a picture of how memory works. At the MRC Anatomical Neuropharmacology Unit, I became strongly aware of how perception and memory are made up of fragments, composites and imagination. “Remembering is not the re-excitation of innumerable fixed, lifeless and fragmentary traces. It is an imaginative reconstruction, or construction, built out of the relation of our attitude towards a whole active mass of organized past reactions or experience... It is thus hardly ever exact.” Oliver Sacks, Hallucinations

The photograph is akin to memory in this way, both a photograph, a ledger and a memory can often be trusted as a reliable source of evidence. Our understanding of the universe as a whole is entirely dependent on our interpretation of the past through records; photographs, ledgers, memories and traces (fossils, skeletons etc), but the research project at the MRC Anatomical Neuropharmacology Unit made me challenge the authenticity of these fragments.

Overall the collaboration changed my perspective on the concept of objectivity in scientific imaging, and deepened my interest in photography. I also saw the potential benefits of challenging the field of objectivity in scientific imaging, as I realised that this is something scientists also think about.

For the resultant exhibition “A Nervous Encouter” at Oxford Fire Station Gallery, I used electron microscope ‘electrographs’ of neurons to create analogue negatives. These negatives were projected onto silver gelatin emulsion, that I had roughly applied to the paper surface. The images were then presented in such a way to highlight the fragility of the photographic surface, only partially fixed and subject to fading.

First Light

Following the residency at the MRC Neuropharmacology Unit, I was inspired to learn more about the role of photography in relation to the history of astronomy. I undertook a residency at Four Corners Film in Bethnal Green, and used this opportunity to explore my ideas in relation to the history and visual language of photography and astronomy. After reading his book “Capturing The Light”, I visited Roger Watson at Lacock Museum of Photography who pointed out that though William Henry Fox Talbot invented the salt printing process, he was also an official observer of the solar eclipse in 1851. Similarly, John Herschel, the inventor of the cyanotype process and of photographic fixer, was also responsible for naming several moons of Saturn. James Clerk Maxwell presented the first durable colour photograph in 1861, yet he also made a contribution to our understanding of electromagnetism and discovered that the rings of Saturn are made of small particles. Roger also mentioned that Louis Daguerre, inventor of the daguerreotype, was in contact with Francois Arago, director of the Observatoire de Paris. Further exploration of these intertwined narratives lead me to understand that the fields of astronomy and photography are intrinsically connected.

I subsequently visited the UCL Space History Archive which holds artefacts from elements of space exploration, such as the Lunar Orbiter Probe which went to the Moon in 1966. The most intriguing NASA photographs in the UCL Space History Archive collection were the composite images taken on strips of photographic film and placed in such a way to make the joins of the prints quite evident.

Earthrise, Lunar Orbiter Probe 1966, UCL Space History Archive.

In the essay “Dark Frame / Deep Field” Marek Kukula and Melanie Vandenbrouck discuss “Sensor Flaws and Dead Pixels” by Wolfgang Tillmans. This image is what is called a ‘blank’, which means to say that it is not exposed to light. This is an astrophotography technique which is used to find faults with the digital camera’s sensor so that they cannot be confused with stars.

Sensor Flaws and Dead Pixels, Wolfgang Tillmans, 2012

“It reminds us that there is no such thing as absolute objectivity, even in the ultra-technical field of scientific photography. Every act of looking, or of the recording of light, involves the imprinting of aspects of the observer onto the thing which is being observed, or at least onto its image.” Marek Kukula and Melanie Vandenbrouck, Dark Frame, Deep Field essay for Breese Little.

Astronomical photographs in all of their manifestations have issues with what Marek and Melanie call “absolute objectivity”, the telescope, camera and sensors each make their presence known within the image. In a recent project for the “Altered Realities” exhibition at Central Saint Martins, I created a lenticular print of the “Pillars of Creation” which highlighted the difference between the black and white raw mechanical image and the full colour mediated image which we are used to seeing. Zolt Levay from the Space Science Telescope Institute allowed me to use these images, and let me know a little about how each image was produced. Both images tell us something useful: the full colour image is digitally “painted” to signify the chemical composition of the gas clouds, yet the raw image shows artefacts from the process of capture and gives us signs which help us to understand how the image is produced. From both of these images we can make meaningful observations of distant celestial objects, but neither are truly objective.

Both Images: Pillars of Creation, Zolt Levay, Space Science Telescope Institute.

An important symposium for my research was the “Envisioning the Universe” seminar at the National Media Museum, convened by Dr Marek Kukula at the National Maritime Museum. At this seminar Elizabeth Kessler spoke about her book “Picturing The Cosmos: The Hubble Telescope and The Astronomical Sublime”. Kessler specifically focused on the highly saturated, high contrast images that NASA produces using the Hubble telescope. Here, Kessler asserts that astronomers have developed representational conventions, suggesting that in the field of astronomical imaging, astronomers can be distinguished by their own aesthetic choices when constructing an image for a publication. Kessler believes that these visual traditions have been adopted from painters such as Thomas Moran and William Henry Jackson, who depicted the American west. Kessler specifically compares the Cliffs of the Upper Colorado River and Tower of Tower Falls by Thomas Moran to The Cone Nebula.

The Cone Nebula, Hubble

The Tower of Tower Falls, Thomas Moran.

Kessler suggests that there are similarities between the two sets of images, these features include isolated landscapes, which are punctuated by immense towers, dramatic light which shines behind an object and theatrical uses of colour.

Kessler’s research demonstrates the subjective choices that are used by astronomers when creating an image for public consumption. This seminar highlighted to me the importance of the role that visual language and photography have to play in the field of astronomy. It is clear from Kessler’s text that the history of art has had an impact on how astronomers use colour, framing and contrast to affect how we might read an image.

Having learned that presentation methods and materiality can affect our experience of an image, I began to experiment with contemporary NASA images, printing them using a nineteenth century technique of photogravure. The photogravure is created by making an etching plate with a negative and the application of ultraviolet light—which then, after processing the plate—can be inked up and fed through an etching press. I used carbon black ink where materials have been burned to produce the ink. When pressed onto fine Hahnemuhle paper, the black ink takes on a dense but sultry texture which feels appropriate to represent the cold and dark void of space.

67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko Comet, Photogravure, 2015

In the exhibition at Four Corners Gallery, I exhibited these photogravure prints alongside a stereoscopic photograph of the Moon which allowed visitors to consider how our perception can fool us into thinking a 2-Dimensional image is 3-Dimensional.

Credit: Henry Draper, from the archive at the Museum of the History of Science, Oxford.

The production of these works ultimately led to my current research question, which enquires into how photographic practice and theory can contribute to the field of astronomy, and vice versa. Following the Four Corners residency in 2015, I began my practice based MPhil at the Royal College of Art to explore these questions in more depth.

Celestographs - Explorations in Materiality & Astronomy

During the first year of my practice-based research degree, I stumbled across the work of August Strindberg, a nineteenth century playwright. One day, Strindberg left an unexposed photographic plate under the night sky, hoping to capture some images of the night sky. Without the lens of a camera, Strindberg failed to capture images of stars and planets but did create nebulous images which occurred when elements of the weather interfered with the surface of the photograph. Strindberg called the resultant images “celestograph” which, when compared to the word “photograph” (light writing), could mean “writing caused by the heavens”. As I learned of Strindberg, it occurred to me that I had been creating what he would call “celestographs” for quite a while. I began to think about different ways of exploring the idea of celestography through my practice. For a long time I have been working with the cyanotype process, a nineteenth century printmaking process which uses iron based salts When these are mixed together, they become sensitive to ultraviolet light from the Sun, our closest star. In early 2015, I attended The Story of Light festival in Goa with my colleagues Jaden Hastings and Nachiket Guttikar, with the aim of highlighting the relationship between the Sun and Earth-based matter. We did this by creating a world record sized cyanotype, 10 x 6 metres across. Participants were able to see the cyanotype mixture change colour before their eyes, and were able to create shadows on the print itself with their bodies, Goan Christmas decorations in the shape of stars and a Sun-shape made of palm leaves.  

World Record Cyanotype, Jaden Hastings, Nachiket Guttikar, Melanie King, The Story of Light Festival Goa, 2015.

I had also been experimenting with solargraph pinhole cameras which can be set up to track the passage of the Sun with extremely long exposures of up to a year. The resultant images show the orbit and tilt of the Earth around the Sun, as the Sun appears to move through the sky. Both the cyanotype and the solargraph could be described as “celestographs” as with both processes photons from the Sun affect photosensitive material.

Meteotypes

Following my experiments with celestial light, I then began to think about materiality of objects that originate from beyond the Earths’ atmosphere, such as meteorites and lunar dust. In 2016, I worked with the Royal School of Mines at Imperial College London to create what I call “Meteotypes”.

Meteotypes, Meteorite-Imbued Etching Ink, 2016.

I sourced some meteorites online and took them to be milled into fine dust in the Earth Science and Engineering department in the Royal School of Mines, with the permission of Katharina Kreissig and Barry J Coles. The fine dust was then mixed with extender and carbon black to create meteorite-imbued etching ink. Photographs of the meteorites were printed with their-own ink, meaning that the meteorite print is imbued with the very same material that it represents. As the viewer observes the print, they see the photographic record of the meteorite and the traces of the physical material itself.

To conclude this section, these “celestograph” experiments have led to my own deeper understanding in astronomy and photography. These material print-based experiments help myself, and others who are introduced to the processes, to understand astronomy in a very tangible way. Using these processes we are physically handling materials that are affected by or come from outside of the Earths’ atmosphere, we can see the materials alter before our own eyes. This experience is directly in contrast with digital astrophotography, where everything happens within the camera or on a computer screen.

This paper does not discount the field of digital astrophotography, as without digital technology astronomical discoveries would not be happening at such an astounding rate. Additionally,  the field of astronomy also opens the door to new possibilities in photography and art-making. In the field of photography, we are often content with using digital cameras that utilise the visible spectrum of light, but what happens when we begin to use infrared filters and films, for example?

Telescopes and Dark Skies

I am the co-director of Lumen Studios and super/collider, where both organisations actively encourage astronomical observation within a wide range of communities. Lumen particularly focuses on how a range of different cultures have responded to the Sun, Moon and stars throughout time, taking into account Paganism, Christianity, Islam and beliefs of ancient civilisations such as the Aztecs, Maya, Aboriginals and Egyptians.

Both Lumen and super/collider organise trips to dark sky areas to encourage participants to view the night sky without light pollution. A recent study “The new world atlas of artificial night sky brightness” by Fabio Falchi, suggests that only a third of people living on Earth have seen the Milky Way, because our view of the stars is increasingly obscured by manmade light.

Stars in Atina, Italy, 2017

Every year, Lumen organizes a residency to Atina in Italy for twenty artists from all over the world. During this residency, artists are taken to Campo Catino observatory for deep sky observation up in the mountains where it is dark enough for the Milky Way to be seen. The artists’ accommodation and studio is also situated within a small rural town, where it is easy to find a dark spot for viewing the stars and there is a telescope on site for artists to view the Moon and planets at any time during the fortnight. Often, artists comment that they have never seen through a telescope before or seen the Milky Way, which can make for an unforgettable experience. At the end of the residency, there are two exhibitions in Italy and London where the artists can present artworks responding to the residency.

Similarly, super/collider organised an inspiration trip to Kielder Observatory, situated close to the Scottish border. The observatory established the Northumberland Dark Sky Park, now the third biggest dark sky park in Europe – specifically focused on protecting the skies from light pollution. The observatory offered us a number of workshops on our trip, including deep sky observations where we saw the Hercules Globular Cluster and the Ring nebulae. We were also able to see the planets Saturn and Jupiter close up, and had the chance to look at the Sun through a number of different telescopes.

Both Lumen and super/collider are passionate about bringing an engagement with astronomy to the urban environment. We often collaborate with Paul Hill of Sirius Astronomy, who brings his collection of telescopes to London, speaks to visitors in an accessible and informative way and helps a range of communities view the Moon, planets and stars. Most participants are shocked that it is possible to see such exotic objects from London, currently the largest city in Europe.

In both scenarios, participants are given the opportunity to view their world with a new perspective. When participants view planet Saturn through a telescope, or the Milky Way galaxy from the Earth for the first time, shock and awe is a common response. And no wonder, as the more we look at the universe in the field of astronomy, the more we realise that conscious life has only inhabited a tiny portion of the entirety of time and space, and is therefore incredibly precious. One perspective when faced with the brief existence of human conscious life would be to feel utterly insignificant, but I believe that we are profoundly lucky to be alive given the circumstances. Not only this, but as humans we are able to ponder the existence of the universe, and express these ideas through the collaborative endeavours of art and science.

Founder and CEO of super/collider, Chris Hatherill adds “In this age of information and free astronomy Apps, it always amazes me how many people at our evening events don’t even realise you can plainly see various planets on most nights, even from an urban setting. The night sky is such a fundamental part of our shared history and culture, so getting as many people as possible to look up and take an interest is really important for us. Melanie’s work with Lumen and other photography-based projects is really inspiring, as it encourages people who might not otherwise see astronomy and photography in the same way to reconsider."

Ancient Light

Moon, UCLO Observatory, In Collaboration with Thomas Schlichter.

As I continue my research I have been continually inspired by the relationship between the complexly intertwined fields of astronomy, photography and philosophy. Keeping in mind the idea of the “celestograph” which can be defined as “writing caused by the heavens”, I have embarked on a new series of photographs. “Ancient Light” aims to capture light that has been travelling for thousands, if not millions of years, directly onto photosensitive film.

Since May 2017, I have been collaborating with Thomas Schlichter, Technical Staff Member at UCLO Observatory to photograph stars, moons and planets on film, instead of using digital capture techiques. Using the digital option, the photon is translated to electrical signals, which can be arranged to make pixels on a screen. In contrast, the stellar photon is physically absorbed by the silver halide crystals, causing the silver to turn black when processed through developer and fixer. As an artist, the use of film is exciting in this context because I am able to physically handle material that has been altered by ancient light. I can use this in a darkroom by shining light through the film negative, and creating a direct print.

The index as defined by CS Pierce as “a sign or representation is something which stands to somebody for something in some respect or capacity.” To clarify, an index could be the footprint which stands in for the shoe, or a bullet hole which refers to the bullet. Put simply, the analogue negative can not help but to refer to the light it receives. Though attractive, digital astro-photographs do not excite me in the same way because they are stored within the memory of a camera, and can be mediated easily with stacking software and photoshop.

Many of the astronomers at the observatory remember the days when there was no option but to use analogue photographic processes, and have no desire to return to those days. For the astronomers at the observatory, digital CCD cameras can produce quick results that are very precise, whereas the analogue photographs required the production of specialized highly sensitive photographic emulsions which needed to be processed in the darkroom very quickly.

The practice of taking a photograph of an astronomical object in any format can be quite laborious, as it requires staying up late, standing in the cold, making exposures that can be as long as 30 minutes. Added to this, the process of developing and fixing the photograph makes the night even longer

I have now visited the observatory on five occasions, and each time both myself and Thomas learned something about how to use analogue film cameras on the telescopes and how to adjust to the specific challenges of astrophotography.

Thomas Schlichter adds;

“Creating astronomical photographs on film 'the old fashioned way' lacks immediate feedback. The delay until one knows if the imaging worked out as intended needs some getting used to and can be frustrating but makes one appreciate the skill, patience and stamina of previous generations of astronomers. When done successfully, the reward is a unique and tangible result of immense satisfaction. The renewed interest in analogue photography of astronomical objects helps to preserve and regain working knowledge of old techniques and might even inspire future teaching workshops.”

Arcturus, 2017. A collaboration between myself and  Thomas Schlichter, Technical Staff Member at UCLO Observatory.

Dark Matter

Cosmic Ray Oscillograph Installation. Laboratory of Dark Matters, Guest Projects, April 2017. Credit: Sara Lynd

In 2016, I visited the Boulby laboratory in North Yorkshire with a group of artists who took a journey 1100m beneath the surface of the Earth to visit Boulby Underground Laboratory. There we met scientists working on the detection of dark matter and were introduced to the Boulby Underground Laboratory by Dr Cham Ghag. After the visit we embarked on a series of exhibitions and events entitled the “Laboratory of Dark Matters”. This project was initiated by artist Susan Eyre, and funded by Arts Council England Grants For The Arts, Science and Technology Facilities Council and The Institute of Physics.

In Boulby Laboratory, Credit: Chris Toth

Inspired by the idea of “celestography”, I set myself the challenge of considering how it would be possible to make a “celestograph” using non-visual data. From my research into astronomy and physics, I have discovered that astronomical imaging makes use of a number of different forms of electromagnetism. Earlier on in this article, I have mentioned using an optical telescope to capture visible light from stars. However, astronomy tells us that our view into the universe is limited because some stars and galaxies are too far away or too dim to be observed by visible light alone. Over the past two centuries, the field of astronomical imaging has now allowed us to “see” more than ever before, with other forms of electromagnetism (such as x rays, infrared and ultraviolet. In this way, science has extended our visual powers to visualise objects that cannot be seen with the eye alone.

For the Laboratory of Dark Matters project, I was inspired to use photographic processes to visualize “invisible” cosmic ray data which is sensed by the dark matter detector. After working on a room-sized deconstructed oscillograph installation to visualize pulsar stars beyond the visible light spectrum, I decided to create a Cosmic Ray Oscillograph. Physicists Sally Shaw and Dr Cham Ghag arranged for me to work with wave form data from the LUX (Large Underground Xenon) Detector. The wave form data showed wave form height and duration, so it seemed sensible to “map” these wave forms to sound. Artist and former astro-physics major Steve Aishman was able to help me do this.

For the Guest Projects exhibition, I installed a phosphorescent spinning disc in a darkened room. The cosmic ray data ‘sounds’ controlled a laser connected to a solenoid, which then projected light onto the phosphorescence to create emergent drawings. As the phosphorescent disc spun on its’ axis, interesting lines emerged and overlapped, before fading away. Inspired by the history of photo-acoustics, I then used the installation to create camera-less photographs, where photosensitive paper took the place of the phosphorescence.

The collaboration allowed for the wave form data to be experienced in a tangible, physical way. Visitors were able to hear the data translated to sound, and see this sound translated to visual movement. Before this experiment, the data could only be experienced in number form.

Sally Shaw explains how the photo-acoustic installation reminded her that she is working with physical phenomena.

“As an experimental particle physicist, I find analysing data does not always involve looking at the waveforms from our detector; I spend most of my time writing computer code and staring at numbers on a screen. To be able to hear and visualise our data in an entirely new and unique way was a stark reminder of the fact that we are dealing with real, fascinating physical phenomenon. I have done a lot of public outreach but there is nothing quite like having something tangible for members of the public to see, hear, and interact with - this can help open up a very technical field to everyone else to learn from and enjoy. I think this was very worthwhile and it reminded me that what we do is more than crunch numbers with our computers.”

As cosmic rays are invisible to human eyes, projects such as this help us to visualise phenomena that could not be seen otherwise. This means that technical information that could usually only be interpreted by scientists, can be made accessible for practitioners in other fields.

Shaw also suggests that by visualising the data, the data becomes more tangible to scientists. This is a comment that I would not have forseen, but is highly important.

Following this experiment, I am keen to consider how it might be possible to visualize other forms of data using photo-acoustics and full room oscillograph installations.

Collaborations in Art and Science. What can photographic practice and theory contribute to the field of astronomy, and vice versa?

I am still at the beginning of my research journey, but here are some conclusions from my collaborations so far. 

One of the most important cultural messages that we have obtained from the field of astronomy, is that looking into space teaches us to understand our place in the universe.  Photographs such as the “Pale Blue Dot” show us that conscious life inhabits a tiny portion of the entirety of both time and space, and is therefore incredibly precious. I believe that astronomical images such as the Pale Blue Dot encourage us to think critically about how we treat our planet, live our lives and how we work as artists.

Pale Blue Dot, Voyager 1 Space Probe, 1990.

Scientific imaging also requires the use of a variety of instruments that can detect a wide range of electromagnetic frequencies such as visible light, infrared and ultraviolet. These detection methods offer new ways of seeing the world, simultaneously offering new range of creative possibilities for artists. I demonstrated this during my collaboration with Dr Cham Ghag and Dr Sally Shaw on the “Cosmic Ray Oscillograph”, we used wave form data and photo-acoustic techniques that had not been combined together before.

On the flipside, photographic practice enables us to understand the phenomena of light in a tangible way. As an artist interested in analogue photography, I have learned more about how light works through my artistic practice. The simplicity of a process such as cyanotype means that I am able to share this knowledge easily to a wide range of audiences, from eminent physicists with a background in light-based technologies to small children who can learn about light intuitively. Both Thomas Schlichter and Sally Shaw commented on the “tangibility” of the collaborations, allowing them to see their own work in a new way.

Another important point is that artists and photographers are used to being critical about the production of images, in a way that astronomers are not. Elizabeth Kessler’s “Picturing the Cosmos” demonstrates how astronomers have taken their visual language from the field of art.

These Hubble images are incredibly prevalent, however they somewhat lack imagination. From my collaborations so far, it is clear to me that both art and scientists should collaborate to find new and experimental ways to represent astronomical phenomena. My ongoing research explores how artists and scientists have approached astronomical imaging, in many different ways. For example, I am very interested to see how scientists working on the Event Horizon Telescope will use their data to visualise the black hole at the centre of the Milky Way Galaxy.

I posit that astronomical technologies are advancing at an ever-increasing pace, but conceptually we are lagging behind. In other words, we find it hard to understand how developments such as the discovery of gravitational waves can affect our perception of the universe at large. I believe that artistic and photographic theory is well versed in the field of philosophy, and can offer a way of making sense of wild discoveries and new technologies. I posit that more research can be done on the philosophical implications of new technologies, with the same rigour that has been applied to the “straight” photograph.

[dawnajaynes32]

A Life in Relief

 A Life in Relief

By Tom Wachunas

   “…Disjointed scenes of a life lived in nighttime dreams. Memory holders of what? Wood, ink, paper – stuff of another age. Like me. Not perfect. Film noir. Cuz I never dreamed in Technicolor. Poetry, not prose. My biography.”  - from William Bogdan’s Artist Statement

   “Art teaches nothing except the significance of life.” – Henry Miller

   EXHIBIT: Xylographic – Biographic, woodcut prints by William Bogdan / THROUGH JULY 15, 2017, at The Little Art Gallery / located in the North Canton Public Library, 185 North Main Street, North Canton, Ohio / 330.499.7356 /  www.northcantonlibrary.org

   After only a few seconds and footsteps into The Little Art Gallery’s opening reception for William Bogdan’s solo exhibit, I was floored. I hadn’t greeted anyone yet, hadn’t even looked closely at a single piece. But I saw immediately something wholly fresh and arresting about the space.

    The walls are a spectacle of black and white starkness, at once startling and inviting. The sheer uniformity of Bogdan’s presentation – each piece matted in white and set in a simple, elegant black frame – is spot-on. And curator Elizabeth Blakemore has done a superlative job in sensitively spacing the works with a keen attention to not only their variable subject matter (including landscape, architectural, and figural content), but also in setting up a variety of visual rhythms that can keep your eye engaged and moving throughout the gallery. We would expect nothing less from a show that featured electrifying works with a strong color dynamic. But interestingly enough, while there is no such dynamic here to excite our senses, the room still pulses with a strong heartbeat.

            Could you describe your world without actual color? Could you envision a lifetime of experiences engraved into your memory as a panorama of only black lines and shapes, all intertwined against the white sky of existence? To put it another way, can you see your past simply as symbolic black marks on paper?  In his artist statement, Mr. Bogdan likens this collection of his woodcut prints, made over the last seven years, to “…photo snapshots kept in an album…keepsakes that preserve a moment in time, but with a story before and aft that is meaningful to me.” Bogdan’s personal story is the ‘Biographic’ (or more accurately, autobiographic) component of this exhibit. 

   So, “photo snapshots kept in an album”? While there’s a certain intimacy to the idea of flipping through a photo album to fondly remember the past, I think this exhibit is more akin to reading pages, indeed chapters from a book you can’t put down. A book of remembered people, places, and sensations, of moments poignant and mysterious, or painful or comforting or…  Books. Remember those? Organizations of white papers inscribed with marks made from ink. You’ll notice one of those here, “Bill’s Hill,” made in 2010, visible in one of the gallery’s glass showcases. 

     Then there’s Bogdan’s ‘Xylographic’ component. We don’t hear the word xylography too much these days in reference to the printmaking process of making woodcut images. It’s from the Greek ξύλο (xylo), for wood, and γραφή  (graphé), for writing. The English term arrived in 1816, translated from the French, recalling the Japanese and Chinese techniques (from the 8th and 9thcenturies) of carving text or patterns in relief on a wooden block, which were then inked for applying to paper. Wood-block printing as a fine art form emerged in Europe during the 14th century, and the process would ultimately inspire Gutenberg’s method of printing from movable type in 1439. Voila, books.

   I offer this nutshell history if only as a kind of lyrical appreciation of Bogdan’s methodology. Sourcing a technique originated in the very distant past – making a connection to time-honored art history - the act of carving away at a piece of wood (itself a holder of history) to make a picture can in many ways be seen as a poetic metaphor for cutting through the present to reveal, or uncover something of the past. To remember is to actively make the past present. Right now. At any point in time, what is our right -now if not an accumulation of assimilated back-whens?

   Look at the haunting way Bogdan takes us to a back-when in his piece called “4”, depicting the legendary New York Yankee, Lou Gehrig (who wore number 4), showing us his heartrending gratitude and mortality. In another back-when, “The Picture on the Gallery Wall,” a few folks appear oblivious to Bogdan’s art on the wall, as if imprisoned and isolated by their own passivity. And here we are in our right-now, looking at a picture of them not looking at a picture. Intriguing.

   Bogdan’s representational drawing (or should I say cutting?) style can vary from the relatively tight and crisp, to the loose and spontaneous, sometimes giving way to amorphous passages of generalized or abstract markings amid spatial ambiguities – a tentative yet fascinating conflation of the primitive and the refined. For example, the bright, crisp clarity of detail that we see in such pieces as “1604” has the marvelous effect of beckoning from a distance as you enter the gallery, calling you to perhaps to frolic with the children in the front yard of the house with the 1604 address. On the other hand, the skewed perspective and dramatic figure-ground contrasts in “Man, Bed, Cat” might make you wonder who is dreaming here – the sleeping man, the cat, or that ghostly figure off to the right side, floating in a white void?

   In the 20 works exhibited, there are only two occurrences of color. Miniscule as they are, they function as exclamatory punctuation marks within their respective narratives. In “Simon 23, 26” (a reference to the gospel of Luke, 23: 26, wherein Simon of Cyrene briefly carried the cross for Jesus), one of Simon’s fingertips is covered in blood. That splotch of red is echoed by a red fingerprint at the bottom of the image – a deeply loaded signature, to be sure. There’s a religiosity, too, about “The Orange Chair,” though I’m not convinced that the inclusion of the bright orange stickers – one a circle (eternal cycle of life?), the other a triangle (Holy Trinity?) – are successfully integrated with the intricate imagery. Like a storyboard for a time-lapse film, seven continuous panels comprise a sequential view of a house interior showing the woman who lived and died there, her favorite chair empty and dotted orange, and in the last panel, a young girl standing in a doorway, the orange triangle hovering above her.

   Despite my reservations about the indelicacy of its orange intrusions, the piece is nonetheless exemplary of Bogdan’s capacity for conveying an uncanny, fragile harmony between timidity and fearlessness. His visceral images feel searched out and sifted through,  often as if quickly excavated and recorded before they can fall back into the dusty piles of more peripheral memories. To varying degrees, each one suggests an illustrated transition from the scenic to the psychic, the physical to the spiritual. Bogdan’s Book. He draws like a writer.

   PHOTOS, from top: 4 /  The Picture on the Gallery Wall / 1604 / Simon 23,26 / Man, Bed, Cat / detail from The Orange Chair  / The doe lay dead in a field of asters

A Life in Relief syndicated post

[hannatricox-blog]

FMP: Week 6

(Above) Drawings from sketchbook of ideas for a piece.

Book sculpture:

After my cage experiment called 'Engulfed', I decided to try a different way of communicating a similar idea, by using a different medium and technique. Influenced by ideas given to me in my recent feedback, I had the idea of using a book to create a 3D sculpture, by cutting into the pages. I wanted to create a deep winding hole with the book, as a physical representation of the feeling of falling, where you have no footing and feel helpless against the gravity, the hole representing your mind or an emotion which you are falling deeper into and feel powerless against.

After cutting through the pages with a scalpel, I painted the layers of the book with watered down ink, to get different shades of black, the deepest layer being the darkest, so that the hole looked deeper than it actually was. I liked this illusionist perspective technique, although I thought that the simple white layers also looked very effective and beautiful by themselves. The watery ink made the pages very wet and look slightly dirty, so I think acrylic paint would have been better suited, although using ink was much quicker.

(Below) Drawings from sketchbook of ideas for cardboard box sculpture.

Cardboard Box Sculpture: 'Falling'

I next wanted to take the idea of using the book to create a representation of a hole, a bit further and work in a bigger scale, as well as experiment with more materials. So I collected cardboard boxes of different sizes, with the intent of using these to make a bigger and deeper hole sculpture. 

I first cut out layers out of cardboard to fit in the box, which I painted gradually darker shades of grey, to change the perspective, making the box looked like a deeper hole. I also put a small mirror inside, so that when looked into, someone would see their reflection in the bottom of the box, almost making it seem like they are in fact inside the box looking out.

When I took the photo of my reflection, the ceiling looked slightly like the bars of a cage, so it was like I was trapped inside a cage in the bottom of the hole. I thought this was an interesting idea, and I was inspired by the quote:

“He who fights with monsters should be careful lest he thereby become a monster. And if thou gaze long into an abyss, the abyss will also gaze into thee”-Friedrich Nietzsche

The tormentor becomes the tormented. The hall of mirrors folding in on itself. Madness.

This piece was just an experiment to see if I liked working with cardboard, and how it looked when painted/cut, and so I didn't make the sculpture piece perfectly and tried to do it quickly. I found that  the material cardboard was hard to make look professional or precise, and so I wouldn't use it for my final piece, although I did like the idea of creating a 3D box or cage out of a material, that is of a bigger scale and so is more interactive.

Miroslaw Balka:

Miroslaw Balka is a contemporary Polish sculptor, who combines installation, sculpture and video in a lot of his works. His work deals with personal and collective memories, and he is interested in public catastrophe and domestic memories. Often using his own body and his studio as a template or first point of reference, Balka’s work might incorporate personal or self-referential substances such as ash, felt, salt, hair and soap. 

(Above) 'How It Is' (2009)

I was drawn to his installation, 'How It Is' (2009) in the turbine hall, which I remember visiting a few years ago. You walk up a wide ramp into a massive steel container, which gets darker and darker the further you venture inside. “Very strange sensation-you know that you are stood in a huge space (30 ft wide, 40 ft high) but the darkness means you can't see your hand in front of your face, voices and clanging footsteps echo inside the hollow metal structure and it feels claustrophobic”.

(Above) Watercolour drawing of: Miroslaw Balka '98 x 68 x 74' (2008). Concrete, steel, electric light.

(Above) Watercolour and ink drawing of ideas influenced by artist’s sculptures. Idea:  Physical representation of a feeling. Trapped in a sealed box, surrounded by mirrored walls. No escape from own reflection and thus yourself. Mirrored box symbolising mind. Trapped in the confinement of own head and thoughts. Seems impossible to escape. No exit. Infinite. Unreal.

Doris Salcedo:

(Above) ‘Unland: audible in the mouth’ (1998) Hair sewn onto table

Columbian sculptor, Doris Salcedo, creates installations inspired by her research into gang violence in LA (2004), and by mass shootings executed by Columbians in the war. “Her work delivers a beauty and elegance, as well as fragility, that evokes a sense of hope. But the affect is also anxiety inducing: Dozens of tables the size of coffins incite a feeling of claustrophobia” seen in her work 'Untitled' (1998). There is a quiet restraint in her delicate and dolorous abstract representations of the bodies of the dead and the disappeared. 

(Above) ‘Untitled’ (1998) Concrete, wood, metal.

In Salcedo’s works, space, void, and absence become filled with meaning, and sometimes with physical materials that evoke the weight of absence.Where once human bodies sat, the spaces under and on top of chairs are filled in with concrete, made unusable. Loss becomes concrete: wardrobes, sometimes still containing the clothes of long lost loved ones, locked forever, filled up with the dull grey, impenetrable material. 

(Above) Close up of ‘Untitled’ (1998)

Her work made me think about being consumed by a memory or emotion that you feel you can't let go of, and so  you are stuck in the past and isolating yourself from the present, gradually being absorbed completely, the concrete seeming like a metaphor for a feeling or emotion.

(Below) Watercolour drawing of idea for piece.

Senga Nengudi:

Interested in the visual arts, dance, body mechanics and sculptor, Senga Nenundi has almost created a sculptural language in her celebrated 'R.S.V.P' series of objects and performances, begun in 1975. Through sets of choreographed actions, sometimes performed in front of an audience, the artist stretches and knots nylon tights, filled with sand, into surreal and distended shapes. 

(Above) ‘R.S.V.P’ (1977)

She creates hanging sculptures that suggest shed skins and contours of the human body, their ethereal nature alluding to life’s impertinence. I like how she uses a variety of natural (sand, dirt, rocks, seed pods) and unconventional materials (nylon tights, tape) together, making her tight sculptures look organic, yet unearthly. 

(Above) Performance piece. ‘R.S.V.P X’ (1978)

Her work made me think about someone feeling like they are being suspended or confined by their mental illness and how it can take control of you. I liked how she did this in her performance pieces, showing human interaction with life sized sculptures, creating more of a sense of relationship between the piece and the audience, making the sculptures more powerful.

I was also inspired to use more of a range of materials, and maybe try using fabric or tights to give my work more of a organic look, and perhaps to symbolise a human form.