Ion’s blog

Pyramids of salt reflect the pink hues of predawn light rising above Bolivia’s Salar de Uyuni. The salar, fifteen thousand square kilometers in size, is but a remnant of an ancient lake that filled the vast depression nestled between two branches of the Andean Range. The man-made pyramids are formed when local Bolivians rake the salt on the salar’s surface into piles.

Obscuring the line between daily life and artistic production, I create photographic sketches as a daily exercise: photographic paper is exposed to a range of everyday objects and rituals, recording passages of time rather than moments.

Daily experience provides the basis for a process of re-personalization: a transformation of the familiar qualities of mundane items and ideas.

Working solely with commercially available black-and-white photo paper, I investigate the sensibilities beyond the materials predetermined usage. (Like any other consumer good, photographic paper comes with instructions and implications.)

These images are fabricated without the use of a camera by either employing the technique of the photogram (bringing the object in physical contact with the paper when exposing it to light) or by subjecting the paper itself to a range of erosive treatments.

UNTITLED (FUSE) These images record a process rather than a moment: in a darkroom a fuse is placed on silver gelatin paper and lit, resulting in a record of the passage of time. The paper is then developed, fixed and rinsed, producing a permanent, one-of-a-kind work.

El 18 de noviembre de 2002 marc