rainbow spectrum

i've been publishing rainbow accordions since february of this year (2013).

these start with my photo of a rainbow. i make a series of copies of this photo, with each new image 10 degrees further along the “hue” spectrum (as defined by photoshop) from the prior image, repeating this process through the 360 degree hue spectrum (as defined by photoshop), with the final image 10 degrees on the hue spectrum from the original image (thus making a loop). i line these images up in sequence to create a 72-page, accordion fold, zine that flips through the spectrum of colors of the rainbow and returns to the original photo.

i also made a parallel work using a drawing of a rainbow as the starting point.


in making these works, which are meditations on color, i was aware of Tauba Auerbach's amazing rgb colorspace atlas.


i was also aware of Cory Arcangel's amazing Photoshop Gradient Demonstrations - which mine photoshop to make beautiful color works & are also open source (the title describing how to make the work).

i thought of my rainbow hue variations as related to these works - starting with a photo of a rainbow, mining photoshop, creating a zine that travels through the color spectrum, with sufficient information as to how the work was made to be open source. while working on my zine, i discovered the unique slinky/flipbook action possible with small, many paged, accordion-fold books and decided on this format given how beautifully this form matched function. it also felt like i was taking the work in a new direction from the above references.

since i started publishing these, i've been looking for other precedents for this work. this blog includes my findings thus far:

Sol Lewitt's Four Basic Kinds of Lines and Colour (1969/1971). this work includes an index and a system for combining a variety of lines, and colors, to make images. the resulting book flips through a spectrum of colors and is open source (describing how the work was made).

(Printed Matter has more about this work here)

Paul Heimbach's die Farbe und nichts als die Farbe (1998) (google translates the title to 'the color and nothing but the color'). this work is comprised of two small books. one book includes three color films (cyan, magenta & yellow) that are made with a gradient of the color from one edge of the film (with no color) to the other edge (with dense color) and an index showing images created by overlapping the color films and the system for making these.

the second book contains larger prints of the images shown in the index that were created with this system.

some of the results look like Cory Arcangel's photoshop gradients, only generated with analog technologies, and given the index, film, and detailed system described in these books, they are also open source. (Printed Matter has more about this work here)

Olaf Nicolai's Untitled [Considering a Multiplicity of Appearances in Light of a Particular Aspect or Relevance. Or: Can Art Be Concrete?] (2007). this book is filled with vibrant color gradients & the book cover unfolds to display the color spectrum.

(Printed Matter has more about this work here, noting that this work was first created as a takeaway from a room installation by Nicolai.)

Gary Robbins' Recordings (2011?). in looking through the exhibitor list for the 2013 New York Art Book Fair, i noticed that Container Corps has a series of books by Gary Robbins, called recordings, and some of these also appear to flip through the color spectrum (i don't know much about these works).

thus far, i haven't come across any books designed to match the accordion/slinky/flipbook form. the closest i have found are Japanese Buddhist prayer books that may be played in a parallel manner (and i do not know much about these).


please share if you have additional references.

single-story lowercase a

i taught myself a new phrase today on the internets: single-story lowercase a. it describes the type of a that i favor when writing.

rediscovering this blog today (post m.f.a.), i realized i need a new font. i'm trying on Josephin Slab. feel free to comment with font tips :)

bamf

i wrote the above paper for my color photography class (otherwise i would have started with all city council, which is when i first recognized Evan Roth's genius, and also included postal labels against bush, tsa communications, laser tag, and eye writer).

Mark Jenkins & Aakash Nihalani

@ www.carmichaelgallery.com/
January 21 - February 18, 2010

street art 2.0

Roberta Smith noted in her recent New York Times article that "street art," the "vibrant successor" of "graffiti art," "originated in San Francisco in the 1990s among artists on the fringe of the skateboard scene." the article was discussing Jeffrey Deitch's recent appointment to be director of MOCA(la) and noted that Deitch "more or less introduced New York to ... street art."

She is presumably referring to Barry McGee and the mission school. Roberta identified Barry as "a talented street artist from San Francisco" and noted that he "offers a cheerful reinterpretation of 80's graffiti art" in her review of his 1999 show @ Deitch. she further contended "although drips are plentiful among these images and some parts are casually painted out, Mr. McGee does not partake of the looseness and speed associated with graffiti art. His notion of finish is refined, even tight." in her review of his 2005 show, she identified "Barry McGee, who helped ignite the street-graffiti art renaissance that emanated from San Francisco in the 1990's."

in thinking about this over the past few years, i've tied "street art" to the global community that was connected through the web by sites such as Wooster Collective. the recent street art exhibit at the Tate Modern was practically curated by Wooster: four of the six artists/collectives (Blu, Faile, JR, and Os Gemeos) are stars of the blog. Moreover, the "long weekend" corresponding to the show also included Graffiti Research Labs, another Wooster Collective favorite, and a Wooster talk.

as a long time follower of Wooster, i have enjoyed watching the street art community flower globally. looking through a search of their "seen on the streets" postings turns up work from around the world (starting with Ann Arbor, Paris, Antwerp, Washington D.C., Bloomington, Manchester, London, Tehran, Buenos Aires, New York, Puerto Vallarta, Amsterdam, Toronto, Williamsburg, Santiago, Hong Kong, Prague, Istanbul, Rouen, Lima, Trondheim, Lombardy, Rome, Munich, Johannesburg, Los Angeles, Kaunas, Tasmania, Milwaukee, Naples, Denmark, Athens, Chicago, you get the idea).

a global street arts community, connected by the Internet (and festivals, like nuart in Norway, the cans festival in London, and fame festival in Italy), may be an outgrowth of what came out of San Francisco in the 1990s, and New York in the 1980s, but seems to be something new: street art 2.0.

available online for free

the amazing Evan Roth issued an open invitation to participate in his sticker project, with the resulting photos displayed on a loop at the elizabeth foundation for the arts one every day show in new york (which runs through dec. 19, 2009)


tonight i emailed my first submission
(kin to my perv: local, organic).

dec. 2, 2009 update

two more submissions (they sent me 3 stickers)

sf camerawork 2009 auction

the preview exhibition for sf camerawork's 2009 auction is free and runs nov10-dec4 (info).

i donated carney (argentina) [archivally framed]


"Highlights include: Berenice Abbott, Richard Barnes, Harry Benson, Ellen Carey, Keith Carter, Judy Dater, Robert Dawson, Larry Fink, Ann Hamilton, Lynn Hershman Leeson, Todd Hido, Pirkle Jones, Michael Kenna, Dinh Q. Lê, Michael Light, David Maisel, Robert Mapplethorpe, Richard Misrach, Catherine Opie, J. John Priola, Herb Ritts, Holly Roberts, Edward Steichen, Alfred Stieglitz, Paul Strand, Larry Sultan, Hank Willis Thomas, Catherine Wagner, William Wegman, Edward Weston, Marion Post Wolcott and many others."

the auction is saturday, dec5th, @ 1pm
($30 or free with sf camerawork membership)