SEEING THE UNSEEN
Photographs by Kireilyn Barber, Meg Madison, Laura Parker, and Ram Dharam Walker
Friday, April 1, 2022 to Saturday April 30, 2022
Opening reception Saturday April 2, 2022, 6 pm to 9 pm
Tufenkian Fine Arts
216 S Louise St., Glendale, CA 91205
info@tufenkianfinearts.com
818-484-5688
Gallery Hours - Tuesday - Saturday from 11:00AM - 5:00PM
The gallery is open by walk-in and appointment
MADISON STATEMENT - SEEING THE UNSEEN - 100-FOOT ROPE SUN PRINTS
The “spirits” or “invisibles” spoken of by oral, indigenous peoples are not a-physical beings, but are a way of acknowledging the myriad dimensions of the sensuous that we cannot see at any moment – a way of honoring the manifold invisibilities moving within the visible landscape -- and of keeping oneself and one’s culture awake to such unseen and ungraspable aspects of the real. They are a way of holding our senses open to what is necessarily obscured from view, a way of staying in felt relation to the unseen waters that sustain us, to the invisible tides in which we’re immersed.
--David Abram, Spring 2006 issue of Parabola magazine, (volume 31, no.1)
I use my 100-Foot Rope to make a simple photogram with the cyanotype printing process. The rope is taken to the site of a natural body of water where the print will be developed. The 100-Foot rope stretches across several sheets of paper, as it is exposed to the sunlight, creating the impression and shadows of the rope on the paper. Then the image is developed in the river or ocean. The wind affects both the exposure and development process by moving the rope and the paper, therefore becoming a part of the artwork.
Photography is valued for its representational qualities, and this work moves towards abstraction rather than representation. The abstraction of the 100-Foot rope blends with the historical reference to the human body as a unit of measurement, and obscures my use of this rope as a “conceptualist prop” in earlier landscape photographs. The impact of the sun and water on the materials combines with the impression left on the paper by the rope. All these elements are hidden in the picture that remains.
The concept of what is “invisible” is endless. The rope has left a mark on the paper but you cannot see the rope; the rope itself spanning three sheets of paper, or squeezed onto a single sheet, refers to the “invisible” concept of land ownership; the sea that is owned by no one developed the image and is imbedded inside the paper but is not visible.
“After the wedding, where the river meets the sea”, Jenner, California 2014
20” x 84” Cyanotype on handmade Fabriano artistico paper
“Things blow away on a windy day, Los Angeles River” Los Angeles River, near Atwater Villiage, 2015
framed 25.5 “ x 90 “ , 3 connecting prints each 20” x 28” , Cyanotype on handmade Fabriano artistico paper
“On my way, spiral, Los Angeles River” , Los Angeles River 2015
Cyanotype on Fabriano artistico paper, 20” x 28”
“Two 50-foot ropes “, Los Angeles River, 2015
Cyanotype print on handmade watercolor paper, 20” x 28 “
The shifting sun and two 30-foot ropes, Los Angeles River, 2015
Cyanotype on Arches platine paper
Windy Day, Los Angeles River 2015
20” x 28”
Cyanotype on Fabriano artistico paper
The sun shines, diptych, Los Angeles River, 2015
Cyanotype on Fabriano artistico paper
20” x 57” ( each print 20” x 28”)
“Recordando la muerte, No.1, No 2, No. 3, No.4”, Santa Rosa Creek 2015
Cyanotype on Fabriano Artistico paper, 57” x 41”, each print 28” x 20”
“Recordando la muerte, Santa Rosa Creek”, Sebastopol, California 2015
Cyanotype on Fabriano Artistico paper, 6 prints, each 20” x 28”
Fading light, Russian River at Pacific Ocean, 2014