Altered States

The ‘Opacities’ are photograms of what is often called obscured glass, the kind of glass one finds in private parts of domestic homes. The sheets of glass act as compound lenses, fracturing and refracting the light to specific focal points directly onto light sensitive paper. The resultant images reveal, as one would expect, something of the hidden structure of glass and its peculiarity as neither a liquid nor a solid.

In the exhibition Altered States, she is showing work from her project, Tulip Fever.
For her, the tulip is a symbol of obsession, beauty, and power, shaped as much by human desire as by nature. In the 17th century, the most coveted ‘broken’ tulips were actually infected by a fatal virus. Drawing from that history, Kirsty constructs her own deliberate fictions: using real flowers as a base, she applies paint and original drawings to assemble hybrid monsters that sit between organism and image.

Simon began to work with the wet plate collodion photographic process and using a large format camera to create portraits he became fascinated with the way the process imposed itself and almost dictated the results. There is also an uncanny realism and slight shift in rendering with a wet plate image which infuses the result. It slowed shooting to a single image every 15mins, which forces a completely different relationship to the photographer/sitter and the expectation of ‘results’. By giving up some control he found a new way of making images.

The work Plastic Era as an Indicator of the Anthropocene is an ongoing research-based project exploring the relationship between humans, non-compostable rubbish, and the Earth.
In its latest phase, the body of work presents a series of Watergrams. Photographs were produced with plastic waste extracted from coastal areas in Worthing and Adur, household chemicals, and water. By subjecting these materials to light and movement, Ainoa embarks on a journey of observing the imposition and intertwining of polymerised substances and seawater, as well as the development of water’s chemical composition

Nina explores unstable boundaries between the oceanic, bodily and synthetic through cyanotype and moving image. A seascape made through sunlight, water and light-sensitive chemistry becomes a surface for projected light, shifting photography between fixed image and continual change. Materials and processes move between states: domestic substances become suggestive of biological and oceanic forms, while canvas carries associations with sailcloth and maritime histories.

Traces is a series of prints made from a single object – a scarf that belonged to my grandmother. The images are Photograms made in the colour darkroom.
I stand in complete darkness, reach for the scarf, place it on the light sensitive surface of the paper and expose it to light.
F16 for 11 seconds.
The scarf becomes a trace of itself, an abstracted and repeated form with slight shifts of movement and colour, a process that is reminiscent of the distortion that happens within memory.
Multiples of the same thing, but never quite ‘the thing’.
The scarf still smells of you.

This work explores and celebrates the female body through a continuous feedback loop between skin, image and material. Lumen prints are embedded within the plaster forms. The cracks become openings: spaces where the photographic image emerges, suggesting the body as something present, changing and refusing to be hidden. The lumen prints are made by applying anti-ageing cream directly onto photographic paper before exposing it to sunlight. A product associated with disguising or resisting change instead becomes a material for celebrating the marks, textures and traces of the female body.

Fused laser-printed photographs directly onto a variety of surfaces using a fluid medium. The original paper backing is rubbed away by hand which ensures the image is worn into the surface rather than sitting upon it. Christine see resulting pieces as artifacts imbued with emotion.
The process of transferring the images is gradual, caring and meditative, guided by maternal memories. She hope that allowing the material to render my feelings without force, the result is a sense of freeness for the viewer to see their own experiences and feelings reflected.