Lucie Gledhill and Kasia Wozniak will be inconversation with Dr Rebecca Bell on Sunday 4th October at 2pm via zoom click if you would like to attend.
SWAP is a collaboration with myself and Kasia Wozniak - an artist known for her use of wet plate collodion photography
The collaboration relies on nitric acid, the means by which we are able to ‘swap’ silver from chain to photograph. By dissolving silver in nitric acid we are celebrating it as an elemental material in both practices. The possibilities of its use for photography and jewellery are challenged through its change of state from solid metal to liquid silver nitrate with use of nitric acid.
Currently there are five swaps which we title SWAP 1 - 5. We have exhibited these at Collect Open 2020 as part of Collect International Art Fair For Modern Craft And Design at Somerset House in Feburary 2020
Swap 1 - A hollow gold curb chain, wet plate collodion photgraph and mirror
The process requires me to draw silver into gold tube before the chain is constructed. After construction I file each link to expose the silver inside. Myself and Kasia then dipped the chain into nitric acid. The acid dissolves the silver leaving the hollow gold chain and silver nitrate crystals which are then used by Kasia in a wet plate collodion photograph of the same chain.
Swap 2 - A fine silver graduated curb chain with gold solder and wet plate collodion photogram
SWAP 3 - Relic A single curb chain link in fine silver was coated in 18ct gold solder. the link was submerged in nitric acid dissolving the silver. What remains is a fragile shell in gold solder, the skin of the link. Silver nitrate is collected for an arrangement of hand poured mirrors which reflect the single link into infinate chain.
SWAP 4 - Fossil Gold solder is run along the length of a fine silver curb chain and submerged in nitric acid. All that is left is the negative space of a chain necklace like a fossil, and silver nitrate crystals which are used for a wet plate collodion photograph on tin. The photograph is soaked in silver nitrate solution and silver nitrate crystals are allowed grow over the surface of the photograph as a frame.
SWAP 5 - Blue This piece is an exploration of contamination. Throughout our process we have found that contamination shows itself with the colour blue which indicatedes the prescence of copper making the silver nitrate less sensitive to light and not suitable for photography. Blue is also a colour not easily recognised by early 19th centry photographic process. Kasia has chosen a model Tim Andrews who has documented his condition with Parkinsons in a project called Over The Hill. Photographed in a pose with a copper chain paternated with copper nitrate and developed on hand poured blue glass.
