The doubled, flipped and merged image is seen to represent the merging of the digital and analog, in where the upside down image references the image as seen through a camera obscura (the past), while the digital (present) is the correct way up. By cropping and merging the face only to leave the eyes (foundlings_Ø_002 and foundlings_Ø_019) it is also seen to envisage a horizon line where the muted foundling representing the infancy of the use the digital, is just peaking over a mirrored (glass) surface or horizon. In foundlings_Ø_186 where evocative fragments of ‘punctum’ like clothing remain (re Roland Barthes, 1981, Camera Lucida), the foundling remains strong and engaged within the past where she is confronting the viewer, as they also confront themselves in there own reflection…
The use of the mirrored stainless steel is used to create the illusion of depth (which is subtly metaphorically akin to the simulated depth of the digital ‘virtual’ environment), but is primarily used as a means of highlighting the ‘spectalisation’ in looking and mediating with the past, in where we are actually looking for something within ourselves (i.e. you cannot avid seeing your own reflection in the work – thus they are very hard to photograph…note reflection in foundlings_Ø_186 and process images).
_process
Having the printed image on both the clear polycarbonate and the mirrored stainless steel, the reflection of the polycarbonate image in the actual mirrored surface achieves volume, depth and a 3-dimensional quality. On the ‘past’ (bottom) side of the image, this is seen as reference to the quality, character and tonal depth of the referenced glass plate negatives. However, with the removal of the ‘present’ (top) half of the print from the mirrored stainless steel with water, thus only leaving the print on the polycarbonate, the reflection in the mirrored stainless steel just reminds us that the depth that can be achieved in the present digital environment is simulated…merely a fictions illusion.
kurtis adamson 