Strelitzia, 2016, high resolution photographic print of folded papers from books and magazines, 250x7x250 cm, framed with bended American nut... Read More
Strelitzia, 2016, high resolution
photographic print of folded papers from books and magazines, 250x7x250 cm,
framed with bended
American nut wood frame.
By referencing Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz (1744-1818), the Queen
consort of Great Britain and Ireland for whom the plant Strelitzia was
named, Carmel Ilan calls attention not only to the plant itself but to its
feminine nature.
About
the technique
I kept trying to
document my three-dimensional folded paper works in photographs, but they
seemed to flatten themselves out and lose all their inner life when they
appeared in two dimensions.
So, without
really planning, I came up with this scanning technique, which is analogous to
the MRI scans we know from the world of medicine where the photography is done
in layers and attains depth.
This discovery
brought together the Sisyphean handwork and use of ready-made materials with
the sophisticated technology that includes scanning and printing the works. The
final images are not an exact reproduction that aspires to describe the object
as it appears in reality, nor does the use of scanning play a secondary or
complementary role in the sculpture. Their task is primary: to transform the
actual object, via metamorphosis, into a new object, a hybrid, nestled in the
encounter between the two mediums. The visual experience that crystallizes in
the intersection between the two techniques emphasizes my complex approach to
the material: paper, text and the printed word.
