In addition to the “Axonometric Portrait” pieces made with the larger acrylic cubes and solid blocks, I have begun to make arrangements with my collection of small acrylic boxes – off the shelf items, designed for displaying small objects such as fossils and crystals. These boxes are injection moulded rather than welded, and as such have sides that are not completely vertical, as well as having a small mark on one side at the injection site. They also come with a solid base which I don’t use in the arrangements.
Axonometric Portrait 6
I now have enough of these boxes to make larger, more complex arrangements on the 700×1000 back-filming apparatus. This arrangement process starts with an edge to edge placement of the larger size of box, and then, as there was not enough boxes to fill the screen, I removed and relocated some boxes to extend the area covered by the whole composition. Many of these gaps were filled in by the smaller boxes.
Two of the 70x100cm cyanotype photograms made from this arrangement.
Three days of filming overlaid.
The above clip, combined with a scan of one of the cyanotype prints.
Axonometric Portrait 7
Rather than dismantle the arrangement in a controlled manner, I decided to “mess” it up, to produce a disordered arrangement using the same boxes. The clip above shows that even this process of supposedly making a mess involves a degree of control, decision making and composition.
Two of three 70x100cm cyanotype photograms made from this “disordered” arrangement.
Three days overlaid of the shadows of the disordered arrangement.
Axonometric Portrait 8
This second arrangement using the small acrylic boxes starts with a clear geometric structure using the larger of the boxes, which then rises to two and occasionally three storeys with the addition of the smaller boxes.
Four of the 70x100cm cyanotype photograms made from this arrangement.
Shadows of the arrangement from a single day of almost continuous sunshine.
Three days of very intermittent sunshine overlaid using the multiply blending mode.
Removal of the acrylic sheet containing the assemblage of boxes, so that a cyanotype exposure can be made
Process of the cyanotype exposure, including the frequent rotation of the whole assembly so that the shadows remain in (mostly) the same place.
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