negative landscape: ‘running jump’ series continued

reversing the image : i had a productive few days in the studio this week, taking up from where i left off last weekend. my starting place was my ‘running jump’ landscape series – a series where i had played with the idea that the lens is an extension of the body and moves as the body moves (lens as an embodied practice etc). instead of working with these images as positives i reversed the image to its negative form and started working from there. this was something that suggested itself as i printed last weekend. i always like that act of translating the negative to a positive through the viewers gaze as it touches on some of the questions i have about the relationship between landscape as experience and landscape as image – a construct that matches and mismatches. the negative image also works well as screen prints because of their stencil nature. some images of the process …

reflection: early on in the process i was struck by the quality of texture that the negative image created – painterly strokes like stitching, which was not picked up in its positive form. i was happy with the single layer image but i thought i’d test a second layer of colour to see if it would add depth or something unexpected that doesn’t allow for a neat translation of x=white and y=black. i might continue to work with some contrasting colours of pinks, yellows, greens but for the moment i think an opaque white seems to work with this tight image size and its subtelty seems to slow the translation process down and almost private. i also printed the image using white ink on cream and black paper and acetate – which could be something to test with a projected black and white image at some stage. perhaps i will scale up and develop translucent layers – plenty to take further, including continuing this ‘running jump’ process.

testing with an audience: i found an opportunity to test this work with an online audience/exhibition which i came across through an open call. while it suits the theme i dont want want to rush the process but overall, i think it gives me a chance to stand back from it and let it stand on its own two feet. it will also give me the chance to define where i am coming from through a short statement about it – something that might help when moving on from here. often i don’t know where i am at until i have re-repeated the process and know what to rule out as much as what to include. i leave off curious about extending this negative image process and about the potential of this ‘running jump’ process as a starting point for screen printing.