ARTIST BREAKDOWN P.VI: UnBound11!
UnBound11!
ANNUAL JURIED + INVITATIONAL EXHIBITION
July 1 - August 6, 2022
Follow along over the next few weeks as we spotlight works currently on view at Candela Gallery. This summer group exhibition is our annual open call and is dedicated to featuring a wide range of photographic artworks, fine art photography, and artist books. We are proud of UnBound's mission to generate opportunities and exposure beyond the traditional group or juried show by providing a collection opportunity for artists. All funds raised throughout the show, help us reach our 2022 goal of 10k to support participating artists by acquiring work into the Candela Collection, which will one day be donated to an institution. Visit our shop to give, purchase the exhibition catalog, and/or snag some Candela merch. 100% of the proceeds raised will go towards supporting participating artists.
KEHAN LAI
Set Study #2, 2022. Archival Pigment Print, 23x18.4 inches. Edition 1 of 9 + 2 AP. $800 Framed
For this project, I construct tableaux of geometric shapes and abstract figures to explore the possibilities of photography, to play with the ability of the camera, and to contemplate color, form, and composition.
First, I turn daily surroundings into poetic abstract photographs and use them as building blocks to form the scene. Then I use laser-cut wooden shapes inspired by Chinese calligraphy to form dynamic sets. The photos are printed and wrap the shapes, imbuing them with anonymity and transformation. The abstract photos tether to vague impressions of curtain wrinkles, neon light, lumpy car seats… which all tangle into a feeling of Déjà Vu. The stage shown in the tableaux speaks to various interior and public spaces I encountered.
RACHEL LOISCHILD
Quaranta Giorni, 2022. Handmade Artist Book of Archival Pigment Prints, Accordion Bound and Displayed in a Case, 48 pages 5.5 x 4.25 inches. Unique Object. $500
The practice of quarantine, as we know it, began during the 14th century in an effort to protect coastal cities from plague epidemics. Ships arriving in Venice from infected ports were required to sit at anchor for 40 days before landing. This practice, called quarantine, was derived from the Italian words quaranta giorni which mean 40 days.
Through this work, I create landscapes that speak to the emotional nature of the history of former Quarantine Islands, while also showing how they have transformed over time. Each image is accompanied by text documenting when the island operated for quarantine, any associated epidemics, and death tolls. I also collect ephemera depicting these locations over time highlighting the disconnect we have between the histories of these places and what they have become.
Postcards have become an important piece of the project allowing me to use imagery of islands I have not been able to access during the pandemic. I have been collecting three types of post cards; postcards documenting actual quarantine stations, travel postcards, and postcards that are the view from former quarantine islands looking at the nearby city skyline - these in particular emphasize the close proximity and frustrating nature of the position of the immigrant that was held so close to their destination. I continue to collect these postcards and develop new ways of experimenting and reinterpreting their imagery and reproduction in tandem with my more traditional photographs as a fluid progression of each other in conversation with history.
ANDY MATTERN
Average Subject / Medium Distance, 2021. Hard Cover, Perfect Bound, 9 x 7 inches, 128 pages. Edition of 300. $40
The rules of photography are constantly changing, if they ever really existed at all. Toying with these notions of what is a “correct” or “normal” photograph, Average Subject / Medium Distance presents Andy Mattern’s complete series of playful deconstructions of mid-century photography guides. A visual treatise on color and a wave to graphic design, the abstract compositions in this book are accompanied by a sublime index of their component parts designed by Martin Venezky along with two informative essays by Matthew Kluk and Lisa Volpe.
CAROLINE MINCHEW
Vernal II, 2022. Archival Pigment Print, Bone Black Pigment, Slate Pigment, Charcoal, 28 x 34 inches. Unique. $3500
These photographs are part of a larger body of work, Vernal pooling, which explores how vernal pools are a macrocosm for holding memory and a site of omnipresent solitude. The photographs distill an embodied and ephemeral experience of how we are grounded in a network of invisible connection with our surroundings. This network becomes evident through biological, historical, and field research I've conducted at the vernal pools for over a year. Through slow observation and consideration of how multiple stories of place can weave together into a larger parable, Vernal pooling reveals how the life cycle of a vernal pool is an echo and lesson in understanding power and beauty in the unseen and the passage of time.
SCOTT MORGAN
10,000 Years, Mitra Vlll, 2021. Unique Silver Gelatin Suryagram, 16x16 inches, 22 x 22 inches Framed. Unique $3500
10,000 Years
“Assuming all forms, golden hued, all knowing,
the final refuge, the one light, the giver of heat
so rises, the Sun, the thousand-rayed, existing in
a hundred ways, the breath of living beings.”
The Upanishads
pho·tog·ra·phy | \ fə-ˈtä-grə-fē \
The art or process of producing images by the action of radiant energy and especially light on a sensitive surface (such as film or an optical sensor). The word photography literally means "light-writing," although a more accurate description would be “light-drawing.”
The light rays of the Sun are created in the burning heart of the star through a lengthy process of fusion. From their birth in the center of the Sun, a photon, the active form of light, takes a minimum of 10,000 years to reach the earth's surface from which the title of the project is derived.
The 10,000 Years project uses this intensely focused sunlight for drawing, burning, and etching into the surface of black and white silver gelatin prints, transforming them into unique, one-of-a-kind artworks. This alchemical process takes the Sun's intense light and light-sensitive materials to create a new expression made of paper, metallic silver, gelatin, and ash. This process was originally inspired by an analog technique, discussed initially in Leonardo Da Vinci's notebooks from 1475.
The final pieces, called "Suryagrams," named after the Vedic god of the Sun, are at once ancient in texture, and modern in expression taking inspiration from ancient cave drawings, Tantric paintings, and modern cosmological explorations. Raw, elemental, and deeply spiritual, the works are divided into diverse bodies under the overall exploratory framework of 10,000 Years.
They are made utilizing both modern and vintage papers, the unpredictable light of the Sun, weather variations, and chemical interventions to create a new, original form of imagery. Through this process of intensely focused solar radiation the actual silver halides of the photographic emulsions rise to the surface to chemically form genuine metallic silver, which is quite visible on the surfaces of the pieces. This silver combines with the ash and chemicals within the paper to create gold, deep oxblood, yellow, blue, and orange lines and marks within the pieces.
