A small project I made for my alternative process class – this piece, Blue Summer, consists of four 2-inch paper cubes with cyanotype images on each face. However, each face is only a quadrant of a complete image, so the cubes must be stacked and rearranged like toy blocks to view the full picture. Six whole images can be assembled – two self-portraits, two images sourced from the web, and two images I took. These photos are deliberately discordant – some quiet, some beautiful, some informational, some visceral.
Blue Summer was an emotionally complex piece to make, and I think that comes across in interacting with them. The act of assembling them forces a level of engagement with their content that I don’t always feel in traditional presentation of images, and the action of assembly itself is, well, playful. In evoking toy blocks it gives the piece a childish quality that is at odds with the off-putting, psychological images and icy blue color – moreover, the faces of the unassembled blocks are quite fragmentary, at times incoherent. In a lot of ways, I think this project is a way for me to grapple with the experiences and emotions I’ve felt over this past summer, hence the title.
Blue Summer was an emotionally complex piece to make, and I think that comes across in interacting with them. The act of assembling them forces a level of engagement with their content that I don’t always feel in traditional presentation of images, and the action of assembly itself is, well, playful. In evoking toy blocks it gives the piece a childish quality that is at odds with the off-putting, psychological images and icy blue color – moreover, the faces of the unassembled blocks are quite fragmentary, at times incoherent. In a lot of ways, I think this project is a way for me to grapple with the experiences and emotions I’ve felt over this past summer, hence the title.