The Curiosity of Con, Petrified Breath, and an Accident known as Blue.

My thesis installation emerged from an interest in visualizing breath. The resulting work came to exist at the intersection between art, biology, and performance. The unicorn tapestries were used as a generative point of departure to explore the preservation and transformation of images through time...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Randall, Steven
Format: Text
Language:unknown
Published: VCU Scholars Compass 2016
Subjects:
Online Access:https://scholarscompass.vcu.edu/etd/4256
https://scholarscompass.vcu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=5335&context=etd
Description
Summary:My thesis installation emerged from an interest in visualizing breath. The resulting work came to exist at the intersection between art, biology, and performance. The unicorn tapestries were used as a generative point of departure to explore the preservation and transformation of images through time, by time, and with time. Reproductions of the six tapestries were each etched into paper and then submerged into solutions of Phenol Red dye, Ferric Ferrocyanide (also known as Prussian Blue), and various forms of sodium chloride. Exhaled breath was used to encrust these images of the tapestries into physical objects which gradually crystallized and changed colors in response to viewers within the surrounding space. An invasive plant species native to Richmond, Virginia was utilized as a catalyst to re-absorb Carbonic acid from exhaled breath and convert the objects back to their original (or not so original) states. The final piece became the active remnants from an inquiry which quickly snowballed into so much more than I had initially planned. The following text is written as a supplemental reading to trace some of my influences at the periphery of the piece while mapping my thought processes.