Untitled [cut paper cyanotype drawings], 2012
cyanotype on paper
17 x 14 inches each
These cut cyanotype drawings are both the negative/light-blocking mechanism as well as the image. I make a set of cuts, coat the paper with emulsion, and expose it face down allowing the cut portions to determine where light leaks through. Where light hits the emulsion, a mark of blue is made. This process hovers between precision and accident--the results are always unpredictable despite the directive of the cut. Once dry, I heal the cuts carefully and individually, refitting them back to a smooth surface and sealing them with an archival book-mending tissue tape on the back. In the case of no. 3 and 4 in this series, this process of exposure, development, and healing was repeated 2 and 3 times respectively for cuts that went in different directions crossing each other.
Cyanotype is a historic process that references architectural blue prints as well as early scientific specimen collections. My work is heavily influenced by both architecture as well as the history of science. The forms in these drawings are abstracted from architectural drawings for tensile structures and diagrams for scientific instruments.
Untitled, 2012
inkjet prints
16 x 20 inches each
This series of inkjet prints was made from images I shot looking (with camera lens) into a globe-form that I made. The globe is made from cyanotype prints on Japanese kozo tissue weight paper. (See image below.) It has an opening, or aperture on each end allowing you to see the inside and outside simultaneously as light is transmitted through the translucent tissue. The cyanotype prints on this paper are taken from images of a wall installation I made in 2011 where shadows, both real and fake, are part of the subject matter. There was a linen-weave fabric used in this wall installation and that is the source of the texture that registers now as an image in the cyanotype.
On the right is the wall installation from which documentation images were used to make the cyanotype globe.
Dazzle Camouflage, 2011
fabric, tulle, and needles on fabric-lined wall
