Breath and Light on 5 x 4’’ black and white film

Related UCL Art Collection artwork
Anonymous, Paestum
after Turner, Joseph Mallord William (1775-1851)

I am fascinated by the anthropomorphic engagement of Romantic artists such as J M W Turner with clouds and natural patterns. *Breath Forms references an anonymous work after Turner in the Strang collection, where the prominence, weight and intensity of the cloud is evocative of darker elements of the human condition. I investigated the potential for the gestures of the human breath such as the sigh, to make cloud like impressions on photographic film with light. The breath is a link between the inner and outer landscapes and the rendering of this animating force allows an examination of the trace of a process that we think we know well.

Parallels can be drawn between the alchemy of the two processes, whether working onto copper plate or photographic plates, a transformation occurs when the image is revealed through their respective developing processes.

Jayne Wilton
MA Painting (Year 1)