V. Elizabeth Turk statement

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Tremulous Anatomies 

These pictures testify to the integral link that binds light, shadow and human nature (itself shadowy and illusive). Their strength is the images’ power to trace and warp our assumptions about corporal reality. Analogous to anatomical illustrations, they give breath and life to a cyborg cohort. In them the human figure is surely present, but absent the details that convey humanity. Instead, materials from the natural world perform an elaborate mime, as stand – ins for the visceral elements of our make – up: skin, veins and bone. Ephemeral more than tangible, the images evoke the ubiquitous nature of time, ricocheting between future, present and past – while reminding us t hat mortality is as tactile an d G aussian as the Shroud of Turin.

The images here, each unique, employ antiquarian camera less photographic processes – using formulas and rituals akin to alchemy. In a nearly darkened room the chemicals are measured and mixed; then – setting up, waiting for the rare unobstructed sun, then, with luck, long exposures and the final processing (again in the almost – dark room)¬¬. The usual result is inexplicable graphic chaos, accidents – but just often enough, fortuitous marvels. That controlled chaos lends humanity (an uncertainty principle) to these images, and is the source of the magic that radiates from the paper.