“RUINS” (2024) is an invited collaborative project I participated in organized by London based artist Katrina Stamatopoulos and darkroom technician Carl Randall in the past few months. The raw materials that have been given are the destroyed abandoned negatives which have been soaped in leftover developer chemicals, sinking coffee, robbing tobacco and dust for long. After they been rewashed and dried, these negatives were distributed to various printers and artists who adopt analog photography process to freely interpret. The original project concept was a sporn out of a full-time film developer in a commercial c41 lab react to his workspace and destroying unused negatives besides the official darkroom process which demands precise and rigid control of darkroom printing.
As a result, I created a photobook mix-media installation including a foldable revolving photobook with a twisted metal mesh net and a standing sculpture. By specifically printing on the zoom-out details of the RUINs negatives and join them together, the revolving photobook shows different shape every time when it is opened. Also, it is an interactive piece with viewers and adjusts to the presentation environment. Chance is part of the creation element.
My artwork has two layers of interpretation for RUINs:
1) Cause of RUINs and the associations: The details and high contract printed photos (gelatin silver prints) show the chaos and uncertainty caused by natural or human-caused RUINs. Metal net as a fence symbolizes separation, restriction, and control which prevents and kills the noise that been caused. Opening the photobook in the shape of a bird symbolized freedom and the concept of hope.
Two out of the 16 photos in the book are printed from the same negatives in slightly different compositions. This symbolizes that history is generally repeated in a very similar way and historical experiments could made us think and learn from it.
a. Natural & Human-Caused Ruins: These stem from diverse sources like earthquakes, floods, and conflicts, highlighting the intertwining of environmental and social factors in shaping destruction.
b. Nature-Conflict Intersection: Areas hit by disasters and conflicts suffer impacts on cultural heritage, urging comprehensive conservation efforts.
c. Causes & Consequences Reflection: By juxtaposing ruins from natural and human causes, viewers ponder varied origins and outcomes, prompting contemplation on human influence.
d. Reconciliation with Nature: Highlighting humanity's link to the environment, the project advocates sustainable practices, stressing harmonizing human activities with ecosystems.
e. Peaceful Coexistence Call: Advocating reconciliation and dialogue, the project emphasizes empathy and resolution to prevent further devastation.
2) Overprotect also RUINs: Darkroom printing process generally has a strict structure and operation rules, analog printers are been trained to be very control and careful on all materials. While overprotect to reach the almost perfect condition could be a RUIN as well which lose the beauty of in-perfections during the handmade process. This could also associate with the growing process, if the parents and teachers are overprotecting the children, the children would actually grow slower as a type of RUIN because it reduces the opportunity for the children to learn by themselves.
The standing sculpture is constructed by a burned negative, a cracked glass, cropped and braided photo strip and burned tree brush. The order on how these items been place represents the mechanism of the darkroom printing machine (Enlarger) when printers use it to print photos. Negative been putting on top of the glass, with a piece of glass on the bottom, photos been printed out. Hidden in the left bottom part of the cracked glass, there is a rainbow color of rocket shape reflection created to symbolized the fires that create the RUINs.
Majority of the harms and suffers caused in RUINs are unreversible, while some of cause might be preventable. Wish for peace and look forward with hopes.
