Wednesday, September 30, 2009

All-Time Favourites #2: Abigail Reynolds

Folded photographs? Oh yes. And no, this is not about the triangles!

She says, "I collect second hand tourist guides. Within the century of printed photographs that they contain, I search for plates that have been printed at similar scale, taken from a similar view point. When I find a near match between book plates, I cut and fold the pages into a new single surface. The dates written on each work give the publication dates of the books I have used. Whichever has been used as the 'base' image is listed first. The patterns I use to cut the two book pages into one single surface are such that all of both sheets of paper are preserved. If you were to fold all the flaps in or out, the entirety of each image will be seen. The act of folding one image into the other pushes them out into three dimensions in a bulging time ruffle. The Universal Now works operate as a resurrection of the unregarded book plates and forgotten photographers that have stood in the same places at a different times, bringing these moments into a dialogue and into the present. The Universal Now takes its title from debates about time continuum in quantum physics." (note: The Universal Now is a series-within-a-series. Not all the folded photographs adhere to this.)

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Other projects (yes, this isn't her only interest) on her website.

5 comments:

bwby,  October 1, 2009 12:33 PM  

So, so good. And you could really write entire essays on the multiple significances and interpretations of the technique.
:)

Danny October 1, 2009 12:54 PM  

I hope this thing signals modular photography. Perhaps I am too obsessed with modularity, but accidents/chance & interchangeability art two things that still need a lot of exploration in art.

bwby,  October 3, 2009 10:30 AM  

I agree.
But.. modular photography would be tricky to pull off.
Even these pieces, I feel, are more art objects that use photographs than pure photography and would be more at home in an art set-up/exibit.
There is a difference between a photograph of an art object and a photograph as an art object.

Anonymous,  February 16, 2010 1:11 PM  

redundancyisredundant.blogspot.com; You saved my day again.

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