- Published: Tuesday, April 28 2015 15:33
Capturing Sunlight
My artwork intends to remind the viewer of the interconnectedness between the individual and the universe as a whole. Within my artistic practice, I am acting as an interventionist, setting up purposeful chemical reactions that are prompted by natural happenings outside of Earth’s atmosphere. One of the simplest ways for me to do this, is to create prints using ultraviolet light from the Sun using the cyanotype process.
To create a cyanotype, paper is coated with Potassium Ferricyanide and Ferric Ammonium Citrate. When the paper is exposed to ultraviolet light (usually from the Sun), a chemical reaction takes place resulting in an insoluble blue dye know as "prussian blue".
If an opaque object is placed upon the paper, blocking sunlight, these parts of the paper will return back to white once the paper is washed.
I began my investigations of working with cyanotypes / solar printing with my project “Beyond The Violet”.
Every day, between the 01 April and 17 December 2012, I made one cyanotype (Sun Print) marking one spin of the Earth on it's axis, capturing sunlight on paper before the Earth was cast back in to shadow at night.
During this time, I amassed 250 small circular cyanotypes which I then presented in one large installation at The Old Fire Station Gallery in Oxford.
BEYOND THE VIOLET IMAGES
Fast forward to December 2014, when myself and fellow MA Art and Science (Central Saint Martins) graduate Jaden Hastings submitted a successful proposal to The Story of Light Festival in Goa, India.
Here, we created a world record cyanotype at 10 x 6 metres!
WORLD RECORD CYANOTYPE IMAGE
Since January 2015, I have been collaborating with Constanza Isaza Martinez on a series of projects using the cyanotype method. Constanza is a cyanotype specialist and runs the Lux Darkroom in Angel.
Our first collaboration were large cyanotype prints of the beautiful church windows at St John on Bethnal Green church for the art collective Lumen. (The Lumen Collective explore themes of astronomy and light, and exhibit exclusively in churches).
LUMEN IMAGE
Over the past few months myself and Constanza have been working on Transience, a series of cyanotypes of cherry blossoms on Japanese paper. These works will be exhibited in the window space at Capturing Light, The Silverprint Gallery, London from 07 May to 15 June 2015.
JAPANESE PAPER CYANOTYPE IMAGES
Also in May, myself, Constanza and her partner Andres Pantoja will be completing another World Record Cyanotype at the ‘On Light’ series of events in association with The Wellcome Trust and University College London. This cyanotype will be 15 x 7 metres.
LINK: http://wellcomecollection.org/events/street-party-malet-place
Mona Evans30 April 2015Lovely images. I really go for blue. Did you know that the cyanotype process was invented by John Herschel? He was a chemist and a pioneer of photography, as well as an astronomer (one of the founders of the Royal Astronomical Society). He was the son of William Herschel, the discoverer of Uranus, and whose 40 ft reflecting telescope is the logo of the RAS. Sir John Herschel - knighted by Queen Victoria - was also talented in many other areas, and one of the top scientists of his day. He's interred in Westminster Abbey near to Isaac Newton.
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