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Month: April 2022

Hand Sanitiser Prints

Here are some of my attempts at using Hand sanitiser to print an image from an inkjet printer using OHP paper.

This is an edit of one of my Claude Cahun inspired images, I like this was there is a mirroring reflection with less detail creating a ghostly impression of the original image.

This is another edit of my Claude Cahun images, I upped the contrast and attempted to print this one on to tissue paper using Aloe Vera Gel instead of hand sanitiser because it had the correct amount of alcohol and I was intrigued how well it would work, I would not consider it to have worked as the aloe vera gel slightly dyed the image green and cause a lot of smudging and I wouldn’t say this image is very usable, I do think it has an interesting texture though.

These are some prints of my painting ‘The Lost and Found’, I really like how the very bright colourful image prints using this technique, it faded in areas and was very bright in others. Shown below are the results of me turning this printed photograph of a cardboard box net back into the original form of a crate, I found this to be a very interesting small and fragile object.

The Lost and Found

This painting was pretty much my passion project for an entire week. I locked myself in a room with just my paints and I and it created an accelerated learning environment. I personally believe this is one of the most successful pieces of work I have ever produced. I began this painting with some large unplanned sketches of what could be considered a gendered body and worked around this as the basis for the premise. It eventually evolved into a coalition of two beings, one being pulled or pushing itself away from the other. The first face began to take shape when I noticed it looked almost android-like, I wanted to lean in to this as I related to this idea of being on ‘auto-pilot’ when in hostile situations. The first figure has been blasted between the eyes with spray paint creating the impression of what most would assume is a bullet hole, I understand that this is quite dark in theme but it felt appropriate to address the darker side of shedding an old skin and some of the obstacles one might face such as suicidal thoughts – I like the fact that spray paint used was almost a neon pink, oftentimes seen as a very gendered colour, this character is literally bleeding pink. In the completed painting I also created another area of dripping spray paint along the lower abdomen, mimicking the scar I have from getting my appendix removed, this brought me close to the painting as it feels like a personal narrative to me and shares my scars. The second figure is unusual in its form as it’s slowly becoming more recognisable as a human body, I feel like the combination of these two figure creates something transitional between the two. I knew instantly when this painting was done that it was going to have to be featured in my exhibition work as I put my entire heart and soul into the production of this and I feel like I really hit the bullseye of what I have been aiming for since I began the exploration of gender within my artwork.

 

The Lost and Found – Rowan Taylor, 2022

Darkroom Work

Despite running into a few problems with some underexposed photographs, I am very happy with the outcome of my time in the darkroom. I have also included some scans of my test strips which, upon scanning in groups I found the composition of them combined to produce some very interesting results which I am hoping to play around with further. I was trying to find the delicate line between contrast and correct exposure. In the background of my photographs, I attached white paper letters to a white wall and relied on the light source to produce delicate shadows of the words on the wall, this was the biggest difficulty when deciding how long to expose the print for as there were some were some areas with lots of darks as well as more delicate light areas to my images. I think that some of my negatives had slight water marks on them which creates a unique surface texture on a few of my photographs and although this was not a purposeful choice, I really like the effect that it brings to the work, this sounds like something I’d enjoy playing around with in the future to get more varied results. I would consider the final outcome of these images to be fairly successful because I think the results of this project are playful and evocative.










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