surface, ground | MFA Thesis Exhibition at Pratt Institute | April 2015
This series of works is about restaging and imaging the material properties of digital photographs. I use transparent and translucent materials, like acetate and mylar, to mimic analog film while calling up a sense of hi-tech ephemerality. Because of the vast quantity of images that are never printed, we think of digital images as files. They become abstract. We misunderstand them as transient or insignificant while in fact these files carry consequences and trace real occurrences.
My response is to literally flip the photographic ground, disorienting the figure and emphasizing surface. The prints are digitally altered, illuminated, and flipped on their axis to muddle recognition. I am thinking about the difference between formal surface and physical or metaphorical grounding.
In a darkroom, finding the film grain is crucial to printing a clear image. I love this grain and it still haunts my digital process. Documenting the texture of surfaces is a way for me to focus on the grain of the image outside of an analog process.
sidewalk stage, cotton digital print, plywood, plexi, pen and paper, florescent light with timer 24 x 48 in, 2015
sidewalk stage, cotton digital print, plywood, plexi, pen and paper, florescent light with timer 24 x 48 in, 2015
sidewalk stage, cotton digital print, plywood, plexi, pen and paper, florescent light with timer 24 x 48 in, 2015
sidewalk stage, cotton digital print, plywood, plexi, pen and paper, florescent light with timer 24 x 48 in, 2015
On left - surface layer, acetate digital print, reflective mylar, translucent mylar, light stand, dimensions variable, 2015
On right - surface scan/stage, projection from scanned fragment of reflective mylar, dimensions variable, 2015
surface layer (detail), acetate digital print, reflective mylar, translucent mylar, light stand, dimensions variable, 2015
On left - Ice field 1 & 2, platinum prints, 8 x 10 in, 2014
On right - surface scan/stage, projection from scanned fragment of reflective mylar, dimensions variable, 2015
Ice field 1 & 2, platinum prints, 8 x 10 in, 2014
Ice field 1, platinum prints, 8 x 10 in, 2014
Installation view
tactile fragments, fired and glazed clay on wood pedestal, 24 x 48 in, 2015
tactile fragments, fired and glazed clay on wood pedestal, 24 x 48 in, 2015
Installtion view
Installation view
flood prop, 2015, 32 x 24 in, mirror, plexiglass, acetate digital print, casters
flood prop (detail), 2015, 32 x 24 in, mirror, plexiglass, acetate digital print, casters
flood prop 2, lift kit stands, acetate digital print, 32 x 24 in, 2015