I am part of an "alternative" show in San Jose, CA as we speak. I was
suprised that there was so little of the type of work discussed in this
list in the show. Seemed to me that the artist's vision was the
alternative method.
The show consisted of my assemblages with liquid light smeared on assorted
things, then hand colored, then incorporated into a construction. The
woman next to me did photo gravure out of old photos. There was a bunch of
hand colored silver gelatin, some Iris prints (I think) on canvas, some
digital manipulation, and some copies transfered to steel. The 2 most
unusual presentations were very mixed media. One woman encorporated
etchings of photos with drawings, other print media and painting. Her work
was very striking. The other unusual presentation was photographs of light
projected onto a hardware cloth sculpture accomanined by original digeridoo
music.
This show had not one image that wasn't the by product of a silver
process...then manipulated in some way. No platinum, no gum, no cyanotype,
no polariod transfers. Yet it was not "normal" photography. It is a very
exciting show.
The images were all very unique. As one woman put it at the discussion we
had at San Jose State in the art department, " We couldn't do photography
any other way." Each of us had found a unique direction to push silver.
It was alterntive to black and white 16 x 20 silver gelatin prints.
Sandy Vrooman
When a person finds no peace within,
it is useless to seek it elsewhere.