There is an inherent symbolism to circles and spheres. They have no clear beginning, no discernible end. They evoke notions of perfection, totality, wholeness, the infinite, eternity, timelessness, and cyclical movement.
&, with media and technology in mind, they visually contrast the square or rectangle which dominates and predetermines the visual stage upon which we act out our mediated lives.
Lately, I’ve been experimenting with cameraless photography, namely cyanotypes and photo/chemigrams, to bring a level of material inquiry to my abstraction and more formalist pieces. Or, more simply, I worked with light sensitive materials using sourced and symbolic water and light – something with conceptual oomph. Even while not consistently evident, circles played a central role, visually speaking, in this experimentation.
On a related aside, my photography has little experience with analogue or film, and this area has largely been unknown to me. Yet, in the efforts and experimentation, I’m finding value in letting go. Embracing the unknown, the promise, the potential, is a theme underpinning much of my work lately – as much as is commenting and critiquing our relationship to technology and productivity and western hegemony. ───── ⋆⋅✿⋅⋆ ─────
With the unknown in mind, the jscript code I’ve created previously produces an unknown aesthetic. It too is letting go, leaning into promise, potential, and the territory of risk.
As I view this code as central to my current practice, I have not stopped iterating. In addition to the above cameraless efforts and the centrality of spheres, I’ve (slowly) integrated more recent research (place/here and markings/here.) A new set of visuals have emerged, which are distinct from the previous series:
I am unabashedly biased and potentially too close to the work,
yet I cannot help but feel a similarity here with
the wordless thought that comes from looking in a fire
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Next steps:
I envision a series of 108 stills, the number of beads on a traditional mala. The code would be set timed to a cycle of inhalation and exhalation (approx 4 seconds.)
I would like to try this across a range of sites (the top trafficked websites, or other sites of personal significance.) I could see the stills being hung next to a custom lightbox displaying imagery similar to the above. A lightbox, being electronic and not digital, is inherently enticing.
Unsure if photograms and cyanotypes will feature, but will happily continue working with both. Cyanotypes, in particular hold a deep resonance in their color as blue is the color of distance. The color that painters use to shadow a mountain, the color of the ocean, the color of the sky, the far end of the visible spectrum. Blue is the color of there, not here. Compelled to find a way to work this in.
Additionally, in several of the photograms I intentionally did not bath the work in a “fixer”, meaning that the imagery that develops will slowly fade. There is something to impermanence of imagery in this that I am only now being awoken to. As with the color blue, must find a way to further explore.