The clearing. "I find lenticular imaging a fascinating medium. Imagery appears unstable behind the lenticular lens and its non-static nature acts like the indecision within Wallace Stevens' poem. Lenticular images create an optical three-dimensional effect and/or flow of motion within an image..." (Sarah Ryan)
I do not know which to prefer
the beauty of inflections
Or the beauty of innuendoes
the blackbird whistling
Or just after (W. Stevens)
I find lenticular imaging a fascinating medium. Imagery appears
unstable behind the lenticular lens and its non-static nature acts
like the indecision within Wallace Stevens' poem.
I have been captivated with lenticular imagery for a long time. I
remember trying to pull apart a lenticular ruler when I was in
primary school wanting to know how the magic of it worked.
I have now been working with lenticular imaging techniques over the
last 10 years and I am one of a few artists using digital lenticular
photography. Lenticular images create an optical three-dimensional
effect and/or flow of motion within an image. They are most commonly
associated with 3D postcards, greetings cards and novelty items and
they are primarily produced by companies who own patents on the
specialist production processes. Extending the lenticular medium
beyond its novelty usages and associations forms an integral
component to my art practice.
I think I am not alone in a fascination with a pull to the unknown -
transitions from one kind of reality to another - doorways, paths,
ingresses to different places. When I think of the title 'the
clearing' I imagine a physical clearing, a gap amongst trees, an
unknown or secret space where things might happen. I also think of
an emptying of space and the process of becoming clear.
I see these new images in 'the clearing' as hesitant and restrained
photographs. With them I want to create a quiet refuge to return to,
where feeling and meaning still mean something. I am also interested
in slowing down the process of looking - of looking at what's there -
and dwelling at length on detail. I'm compelled by momentary
sensibilities and the beauty of the object or person that holds the
potential for telling a story. Accordingly works with this mindset
become imbued with a sense of permanent search which can be likened
to indefiniteness and indecision. These visual concerns also
correspond with the non-static and elusive qualities of the
lenticular medium. The actual blurring, the rendering slightly
out-of-focus that the lenticular process achieves serves to imbue the
images with an uncanny unreadability.
Sarah Ryan, Berlin, March 2009
(Stevens W., Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird, The Collected
Poems of Wallace Stevens,
Vintage Books, New York, 1990, page 93)
Sarah Ryan is currently Artist in Residence at the Australia Council
Studio, Kuenstlerhaus Bethanien, Berlin
Opening Friday 24th April from 7 - 9 pm
Gitte Weise Gallery
Tucholskystrasse 47 - Berlin
Tuesday to Saturday 11 - 6
Free admission