Folding - Cyanotypes

Canotypes have become a throughline in my art practice, connecting my thoughts between the mediums I work in. If I were to describe it in a word it would be folding: a folding of time, of place, of media, of material, of relationships.

In this series of paintings, I fold asphalt and cyanotype together on the surface of the canvas. This is a folding of time. Asphalt is ancient; compressed plants, grown from sunlight, millions of years ago. I make the cyanotypes outside, under the same old sun. The exposures vary depending on the weather and the season; darker blues for a bright day in summer, lighter greyish tones in the winter. I never know what I’m going to get until the very last moments of creation, when I wash the canvas in water, and the distinctive blue colour begins to appear. I like the way they make me think about skies I’ve yet to see. 

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