Helen Holder
Bachelor of Fine Arts
DART1130 Photography 1
For this assessment I was required to explore the aesthetics of analogue production, and the agency of chance by drawing on concepts of optics and the observation of light to create a body of work.
This series of artworks are created using Cyanotype chemicals on cotton paper, using light sources found at a suburban home in Sydney. The current pandemic lockdown has made way for a convergent way of thinking about how I interact with the world – through viewing from windows.
Being locked in my house, I looked at the different light sources around the home and found windows being an important way we relate to the world. I completed experiments with cyanotypes using windows as the light source, timing each exposure to find the best outcome for each piece. After completing extensive experiments of cyanotype works, I found that the use of materials that cover the windows, gave way to a new concept about how we ‘see’ the world. A focussed way of looking, about how we shape our ‘view’, but often don’t document the types of materials we use to cover the windows. I found a way to capture the light source at different times of day, with the materials documenting them with this age-old method of cyanotype printing. I presented this in a virtual reality exhibition format, adjacent to a window to place the artworks into context into the environment of the gallery.
Acknowledgement of Country
UNSW School of Art & Design stands on an important place of learning and exchange first occupied by the Bidjigal and Gadigal peoples.
We acknowledge the Bidjigal and Gadigal peoples as the Traditional Custodians of the land that our students and staff share, create and operate on. We pay our respects to Elders past and present and extend this respect to all First Nations peoples across Australia. Sovereignty has never been ceded.
