tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-57198975284327285.post2253636342146023390..comments2022-08-04T07:46:37.428-04:00Comments on Fugitive Vision: Thinking about Creative DestructionEvan Mirapaulhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12081536503577305620noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-57198975284327285.post-74410562949893704702008-07-07T12:38:00.000-04:002008-07-07T12:38:00.000-04:00Here are some random associations with "creative d...Here are some random associations with "creative destruction":<BR/><BR/>Historically I think of the "duotone solarizations" of Edmund Teske, which involved re-working his existing negatives, playing with the chemistry (exposing developers to light before they had been fixed, or after they had been partially fixed) - rendering each image unique. Depending on the papers & chemistry used as well, different tonalities were achieved, as well as solarization effects (negatives rendered as positive, & vice versa). Teske comes out of a very distinct pictorial tradition, dating back to the 1920s, in Chicago & subsequently Los Angeles. The print & its surface were assumed to be mediated - the transparency we assume with modern "straight" prints is a later idea. Teske's patron was Aline Barnsdall, who is known now primarily for her estate "Hollyhock House" designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, which is now a cultural center run by the city of L.A. Teske was also a follower of the Vedanta Temple. Unlike more traditional pictorial materials (gum bichromate overlays, platinum printing, etc.), Teske utilized the effects of "deterioration" of the silver, experimenting with chemistry & light, which I think would fit in this framework.<BR/><BR/>Teske had been a teacher of James Fee, who works currently, who has experimented a lot with the same techniques.<BR/><BR/>Other work that comes to mind: the photos of Sigmar Polke, which use chemicals in a much more selective & delirious manner - such that the image sometimes is barely apparent or unrecognizable. <BR/><BR/>Also, some of the prints of Boris Mikhailov, which employ scavenged or "compromised" materials. I'm thinking of his book "Unfinished Dissertation" which uses an academic dissertation as the matrix of Mikhailov's book. Or his use of cyanotype paper. My understanding of Mikhailov's work is that before the fall of the USSR, it was "officially" unofficial, & was deliberately "poor" & "poorly made" to stand outside the world of sanctioned imagery.<BR/><BR/>Also (to go in another aesthetic direction): the 80s work of the Starn Twins with its folds, wrinkles, spills & cellophane tape, come to mind.One Way Streethttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11821529041615599849noreply@blogger.com