Saturday, December 6, 2008

Water / Light / Aura

On Abelardo Morell and James Casebere

At the points of collection, condensation, the intangibilities of water and light precipitate. In chemistry, certain conditions in a liquid lead to the process of precipitation, and a solid is formed.
This seemingly impossible (al)chemical moment has its parallel in the play of light, shadow, water. And, perhaps if there is a physics and a metaphysics, then there is also a chemistry and a metachemistry, where objectivity is transcended. Chemistry and physics collide at the point of molecular thinking, of the thresholds between the constituents of things and their forming into the real.
The vision of James Hamilton-Paterson's swimmer, opening Seven-Tenths: The Sea and its Thresholds, looking up from below the water and seeing that surface of conditions meeting as a 'mirror of air' ..."The swimmer reflects on this mirror, imagining the sky weighing down on the sea and the sea holding up the atmosphere, curious about what exactly can be happening at the interface. If it were possible to magnify the activity, surely a buzzing skin of molecules would be revealed? Water molecules and air molecules so intermixed and saturated with atoms in common it would be undecidable which medium they constituted. At what point did these milling particles become waves?"

The swirling surfaces of chemistry and physics are momentarily held within the photograph. The phenomenological moment, where the process of condensation, precipitation, and state-shifting takes place. Light becomes solid, auratic...

James Casebere, Maghreb, 2005

Abelardo Morell, Light entering our house, 2004

Water becomes light, and light becomes water ...

James Casebere, Flooded Hallway from Right, 1999

Abelardo Morell, Camera Obscura: View of Central Park Looking North-Summer, 2008

5 comments:

I Was Absent that Day said...

If you are interested in Abelardo Morell's photographs, check out the documentary film Shadow of the House - Abelardo Morell. Director Allie Humenuk filmed Morell and his family for over 7 years both at home and abroad. It is a great film, and it really captures Morell and his work beautifully!

Check out the trailer at the webiste: http://www.shadowofthehouse.com or on the YouTube channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/ShadowoftheHouse

jacky bowring said...

Thanks Aimee - yes I heard of that film a while back from Allie herself, when I did a previous post on Abelardo Morell - unfortunately it does not seem to have arrived in New Zealand...

Anonymous said...

Very beautiful and also artistic.
Thanks for posting this water light aura.

jacky bowring said...

Thanks Aparna, much appreciated.

dhvanik said...

hi
nice blog and understanding of an aura. hi we are students of design. we want to create a artificial aura around the heritage site and building in AHMEDABAD,India. so can you suggest us how we can create an artificial aura.