the early earth was silent like a mind spinning
2020
polaroid emulsions on paper
approx. 4x6 inches each
An emulsion lift is an alternative photography process in which the microscopic, gelatinous image layer of a Polaroid is carefully separated, floated in water, and applied to another surface. Transferred from snapshots of botanic life taken during daily walks throughout 2020 and 2021, these works capture a world adrift. Credit for the title of this project goes to Susan Barba, in her poem “Geode.”
Outside my apartment in Brooklyn, I projected a live stream of my hands making the emulsion lifts in my kitchen, every night from September 12-20, 2020, as part of the Neumeraki project Art Off-Screen, curated by Eileen Jeng Lynch.
“While in some of the works, the original referent is clear (such as clouds and trees), in other examples, the subject matter of the original photos is seemingly distant. This conflict positions the works as both conveyors of information and catalysts for obscurity.”
- Daniel Berman, Assemblage Journal
