Tuesday 17 June 2008

For post grad forum 19th june cntd- photo destruction- experiments after Decasia/Dave McKean

ok- working with the idea of reason to eradicate an image live in a performance (as opposed to being developed, here it is being destroyed), i have selected a nanny's funeral (stand up ) story related image, the inappropriate event to photograph, therefore destroying it (interestingly, this is a popular topic on flickr, see here for floral tributes with some great examples of floral remote controls and cross-words ) and here for funeral photos as my great aunt was photographing my nan's funeral and i remembering feeling very uneasy at the time- under the spotlight of how to behave/react further emphasised by the intruding camera lens on personal and collective grief but its also seems inappropriate to smile- hmmm? or alternatively as its a celebration of life- maybe its not? life goes on)

so here am trying to see how i can remove the inkjet printed image found on
flickr this already feels disposable- image found on the internet through a search- (onto satin photo paper) using various solvents;


top to bottom- Vanish stain remover, upholstery stain removing spray, nail varnish remover, Cillit Bang, and timed to see how each solvent reacts with the photograph. Applied the nail varnish remover with a cloth (could this be a handkerchief? put the nail varnish remover in an old style bottle?) so image is pulled off- wiped away onto the handkerchief. i like the handkerchief as it references the sadness of funerals, how you pull it out from your pocket

Interesting to watch how the solvents sit on the surface and silently eradicate. the upholstery spray gave globules which then looked quite cellular after 2 minutes. cillit bang removed the most with a clean wipe back to the white paper (the most instant removal), the nail varnish removing pulled off the inkjet ink slowly and you could move the ink around- needed a lot of care to remove it in layers- slow, methodical action required- destruction is slower


Cillit bang caused the ink to separate, see above


in this video i have purely worked with nail varnish remover- immersing like in a darkroom tray (where nothing actually happened) and then wiping with the cloth- obliterating the subject form its surround. paper, however as its not as durable as the resin coated photo paper, gets soggy and the surface rather than the image starts to be removed. probably don't need to put it into a tray, i like the nail varnish as its a personal item rather than household- scraping back the layers of made up beauty back to ordinary self.

DIGITAL EXPERIMENTS
i am now coming back to my earlier experiments for the nunnery using the idea of digital projection killing the traditional photo in development- by trying a still photo feed straight to projector of the image reacting to light, which then projects back over the image- repeatedly to see what happens to the image when no chemicals used. the sunprint method gives a pale pink feminine colour- (i once used this technique with young students to make a mothers day card) i like the DSLR still image rather than video as it comments on the temporality even more- as it appear on the projector, it is of the moment already passed- and snatched away again to be replaced by another- not a constant feed

idea for the forum- NB this work-in-progress is one sided, non participatory only at this point to test ideas- but the work is intended to be participatory when developed- eg 'bring a flower' or 'bring a photo you no longer want' )

announce this work-in-progress performance has 2 possible photo methods so not intended to use both but done for purposes of forum discussion.

Resources
Table, chair, multi-media projector, DSLR, RCA cable, photo paper, flower (TO BUY), plate of glass, old box/suitcase (TO BUY/FIND) containing old bottle (TO BUY/FIND) with nail varnish in it, old photo album containing cat wreath photo, handkerchief in pocket)
Projector is set up on the floor in line with the flower on the floor.
  1. lay out the flower onto the photo paper on the floor at front. put glass on top of it to push it flat onto the paper
  2. sit in front of the group behind a table and tell the cat wreath story - live OR pre-recorded on a video projection so can be short and timed exactly as forum is short- max 3-4 minutes (also be good to see response to prerecorded?)
  3. get out old box and lay out bottle, and photo album. handkerchief from pocket, neatly unfold on the table.
  4. open photo album towards self only and take out the photo of the cat wreath
  5. wipe nail varnish over the photo flat on the table removing cat wreath subject of the image.
  6. remove the glass from the flower and remove the flower and put to one side.
  7. Using the DSLR, photograph the sunprint trace left
  8. image projected across the sunprint
  9. repeatedly photograph it- see what happens! how dark does it go- does the flower disappear?
  10. as it goes, destroy the flower (carefully or violently)
i have mega tutorial day (geraint and doug) thursday before the forum so need to be quick setting up on thursday

2 comments:

Laura Bean said...

I think that distroying an already fixed image is really interesting. Something that you think will be there forever turning out to be temporal mirrors how I think of life, so feels fitting to me.

Would there be a reason that you are using the solvents? Is that worked into the story? I'm thinking that the smell from these chemicals is identifiable and the conceptual idea behind picking one as well as the practical reasoning.

harriet said...

hey lady

thanks for this. i've been amending this post so it reads as i intended (although a little rambling) so sorry if you've not read it all- i think i have now decided on the nail varnish for thursday as its a personal beauty product removing your facade back to self- i quite like that.

yes i should consider the smell and maybe weaving into the story- jordan used this in his 'dead dad club' a mix of whiskey, water and funeral parlour fragrances i think. is the smell of nail varnish clearly identifiable? keeping it in the original bottle would identify it but was thinking of it being in a old style ceramic beauty bottle

as i'm obsessing about temporality for my research paper, found some stuff willem defoe said here which got me thinking after watching decasia;

"There's a devotional element in giving yourself to an art that evaporates. Its temporality mirrors life. Sometimes theater feels beautifully useless because its exploitation is limited. It goes recorded only in memory."

from here;
http://www.all-story.com/issues.cgi?action=show_story&story_id=86