Q
What inspired your preoccupation with the materiality of photography in the new work you are presenting at Unseen?
A
My work often begins with an observation or a discovery I make in my studio, which I will then try to recreate. My ideas are usually to do with testing the material boundaries of photography and text. The work I am showing ... began when I was walking down the street on a rainy day and observed the disintegration of posters and cardboard after bikes and cars had driven over them. By the end of the day they formed what I refer to as ‘comets’ that spread out on the streets. The posters had previously carried information but throughout the day they were completely reduced to mere material. I am interested in ways that information is physically interacted with and how it is moved, used and disintegrated in daily life and in physical space. I tried to integrate this observation into my work.
Q
Tell us about the techniques you developed during the process.
A
I made my own tools, which are ink rollers covered with rubber mats. When I roll these over images they gradually break down until the image does not function as an image anymore – I try to get as close as possible to this breaking point. These techniques are ways to scale down the communication and circulation of information. I often use silkscreening, for example, which is a way to move from digital or mechanical mass reproduction to a more manual form of reproduction in smaller quantities. I then use my own methods to further disintegrate them.
Interview with Unseen Magazine
