Boundary Layer, 2017-present.
Boundary Layer is an ongoing series of unique cyanotypes that use sodium carbonate as a tracer to record water flow over a surface. Each grain of sodium carbonate that hits the cyanotype leaves a streak as it dissolves. The streak is a vector, it records direction and velocity of the flow at a point. The process of making these is a dance. I start with a developed and dried cyanotype, as water starts to flow over the surface of the paper, it warps and buckles, creating a topography that channels the water into complex anastomosing patterns. With the water flowing over the piece, I start moving around it, tossing the sodium carbonate grains up in the air where they are picked up by air currents and randomly distributed onto the piece. Its a quick process and I don't have any time to think. The final pieces are a physical record of these transient movements - water, air and body. It's scientific in this way, (although obviously without the rigor) the transformation of complex phenomena into data.