DIGITAL TRANSITIONS
Selections from the Light Work Collection

Exhibition Checklist

Anthony Aziz & Sammy Cucher
#4, 1999 from the series Interior
Chromogenic print
8 x 12.75"
00.97

The internationally-known artist team of Aziz and Cucher synthesized this image of an interior environment by digitally cloning images of human skin. This is an example of an image created mostly within the digital realm. This print is a "hybrid," where human elements and architecture literally merge. It is a digital image printed by traditional means—the chromogenic process.

 

Lois Barden & Harry Littell
Barden Collection #05, 2004
Archival inkjet print
15 x 18.5"
2004.65

Barden and Littell received a 2004 Light Work Grant based on a project involving Barden’s collection of antique 8 x 10 glass negatives of nineteenth century Pennsylvania logging communities. Barden was a student in Littell’s advanced digital photography course at Tompkins Cortland Community College. After careful cleaning, nearly one hundred plates were scanned to be reprinted digitally. As visible in this print, the emulsion on many of the plates was damaged over the years. The images were not retouched.

 

Matt Black
Dawn, Firebaugh, 1996
Archival inkjet print
19 x 23"
2004.58

Black’s portrayal of life and agriculture in the Great San Joaquin Valley of California is beautifully rendered in this grainy digital print. While the image may have been manipulated, it shares similar and recognizable qualities with the tradition of classic black-and-white photographic printing such as grain. Black was an Artist-in-Residence at Light Work in 2003.

 

Ben Gest
Jessica and Her Jewelry, 2005
Archival inkjet print
40 x 26"
2005.90

Ben Gest creates images from multiple digital photographs of his subject taken from several different points of view. These images are seamlessly joined together on the computer to create a new but artificial perspective that is subtle and only discernable upon the careful inspection of a print. Utilizing this time-intensive
process, Gest is able to create his new and personal version of reality.
He was an Artist-in-Residence at Light Work in 2005.

 

(Carol Lee) Terry Gips
In the Forest, 1990
Inkjet print
34.5 x 21"
1994.05.23

This is the earliest piece in this show, and like Keith Piper’s print, is fashioned from twelve smaller prints carefully aligned and mounted to form the larger, complete image. This light-sensitive dye inkjet rendering contrasts markedly from current technological capabilities. Today’s digital images are usually printed with archival pigmented inks and often mimic traditional chromogenic or silver gelatin prints. They are sometimes indiscernible from traditional prints by the inexperienced eye. Gips was an Artist-in-Residence at Light Work in 1991.

 

Myra Greene
Untitled (Cropped Face), 2004
Archival inkjet print
14 x 11"
2005.25

Greene has a background in fine, graphic art printmaking that is evident in her prints in the Light Work Collection. These dark, mysterious, and rich self-portraits are examples of the quality printmaking possibilities that can be produced on a variety of media by digital inkjet technologies. Rather than mimic a glossy traditional chromogenic print, the artist has intentionally chosen to present a print with deep tones, a matt and velvety surface, and torn edges. Greene was an Artist-in-Residence in 2004 when she produced a series of these prints.

 

Sunil Gupta
Queens, New York/Lambeth, London, 2001/2003,
from the series Homeland
Archival inkjet print
24 x 60"
2004.62

In the Homeland series, Gupta juxtaposes images from Canada, America, Britain, and his native India. The combination of a Shiva shrine with a London street scene has both personal and cultural references. Digital printing allows the artist to print diptychs or multiple images on one sheet easily, as illustrated here. Gupta was an Artist-in-Residence at Light Work in 2003, and this work was printed in the Community Darkrooms digital lab.

 

Deborah Jack
Landscape #1, 2003 from the series Imagined Spaces
Archival inkjet print, giclée process
19 x 40"
2004.47

Jack explores the concept of genetic memory in this dark and mysterious imagined landscape. This personal vision is influenced by her experiences of déjà vu while traveling in the US from her native St. Maarten, and later finding out that her ancestors had lived in those areas. Landscape #1 combines vague elements of intuition, imagination, and memory, and was produced during Jack’s residency at Light Work in 2003.

 

Mona Jimenez
My dear Mama, don’t worry, 1992
Inkjet print
21 x 26"
1994.05.6

Jimenez used a family photograph and personal letters between her father and grandmother during the Spanish Civil War to create this work. The layered images of text, while obscuring some information, highlight some words and give us a general sense of correspondence common between family members during wartime. Digital collage allows artists to combine,
layer, and manipulate text and images easily. Jimenez was an
Artist-in-Residence at Light Work in 1991 during the first part of the Gulf War, which inspired this work since she was concerned that her son would be drafted.

 

Keith Johnson
Do Not Open, 2005
Archival inkjet print
29.75 x 29.75"
2005.24

Keith Johnson, Artist-in-Residence in 2005, worked for many years with traditional, analog photography. He continues to shoot his images on film using a Hasselblad camera, but has decided to work and print digitally for many reasons, including a control and precision that he feels he can only achieve with digital media.

 

Martina Lopez
View of the Heart 1, 1995
Cibachrome print
29.5 x 49.5"
98.78

Lopez uses digital technology almost exclusively to create prints by combining scanned images from found anonymous, antique photographs. She incorporates clouds and landscapes from her own work to create a strange and surreal setting. The final digital composite image is used to create a 4 x 5 transparency that is then printed as a large-scale cibachrome print. Lopez participated in the Artist-in-Residence program in 1995 and had an exhibition of her work in the Robert B. Menschel Photography Gallery in 1999.

 

Osamu James Nakagawa
Rain, 2003, from the series Ma, between the past
Archival inkjet print
30 x 40"
2003.13

In this series, Nakagawa combines his own photographs taken in Japan and the US with those of his father and grandfathers to represent memories from the past and the two cultures. Digitally duplicated, collaged, and manipulated film stills are blurred to simulate movement, falling like rain from the sky. Nakagawa was an Artist-in-Residence at Light Work in 2002.

 

Barry Perlus
Samrat Yantra at the Jaipur Observatory, 2001–2003
Archival inkjet print
8 x 15"
2005.03

Perlus created this spherical rendering of a 360° panoramic print by digitally stitching together a series of twenty-nine overlapping shots. All the visual information from the panoramic image is presented in a 1:2 rectangular format so there is obvious distortion of the image at the top and bottom. Perlus created spherical virtual reality images in Quicktime® format that are available online and allow viewers to maneuver and change viewpoints (http://www.people.cornell.edu/pages/bap8/Proj_Observ.htm). A recipient of a 2004 Light Work Grant, Perlus is an associate professor at Cornell University, where he teaches photography.

 

John Pfahl
Tintern Abbey Exterior, River Wye, South Wales, 1993/1997
Archival inkjet print, iris print
13 x 16.5"
98.14

Inspired by the eighteenth century British Picturesque movement, Pfahl has produced a series of prints using contemporary technologies. Subtle elements of the image, especially the Photoshop watercolor filter and intentional strip of pixilation across the lower portion, clearly mark this image as digital. Pfahl’s work reflects the idealized landscape with visual traces of human intervention that predates the development of photography, now brought up to date using digital technology. He has participated in many Light Work programs, including exhibitions of his work in 1979, 1991, and 1997.

 

Keith Piper
Untitled, 1991
Inkjet print
9 x 17"
1994.05.21

Piper uses multimedia installations of slide projections and computer-generated images reflective of many aspects of Black and African history. This digital collage is interesting as an early digital print. It was produced by combining three 8.5 x 11" inkjet prints, which may have been the largest format that was readily available in 1991 when he was a resident artist. Besides changes in the capability of much larger print size, the tonal rendering and quality are vastly different from those produced with current technology in the digital lab.

 

Neal Rantoul
Cava Romana, Italy, 1992, printed 2001
Archival inkjet print
32 x 37"
02.27

The subject of ordinary and desolate landscapes and objects within those landscapes is central to the work of Rantoul, a 2001 Artist-in-Residence at Light Work. Rantoul gives these subjects a sense of the sublime and classical beauty with deliberate choices of form, shadow, and light. While at Light Work he concentrated on creating fine large-scale digital prints of his work on watercolor paper, paying attention to quality and detail to rival that of traditional prints.

 

Zoë Sheehan Saldaña
Lamoine, 2001
Cross-stitched thread in canvas
in plywood and formica frame
10 x 10"
2003.17

Sheehan Saldaña uses photography and digital imagery as basic tools for her creative work. The original image was appropriated from the Internet at low resolution. She then further modified the image. The pixels, or small blocks of color, were the basis for the pattern that was used to create the machine-produced needlework shown here. Sheehan Saldaña is interested in textile and conceptual art, and uses digital technology often. Her work was featured at the Light Work gallery in 2005, and she was an Artist-in-Residence in 2001.

 

Alessandra Sanguinetti
Revolver, 2002 from the series
The Adventures of Guille and Belinda and the Enigmatic Meaning of their Dreams
Archival inkjet print
20 x 20"
2002.32

Sanguinetti’s work is usually shot in medium format slide film, which is an expensive format for making prints. Instead she had the slides scanned with high quality scanners and printed with careful attention to color correlation to the original image. Consistent duplication of the print is easier with digital processes. With quality permanent inks, the prints may have an archival lifetime of approximately seventy years or more, depending on the media, as opposed to the fifty years of a typical cibachrome print. Sanguinetti was an Artist-in-Residence in 2002 and had an exhibition at the Light Work gallery in 2003. This image is one of many she had printed at Community Darkrooms.

 

Kanako Sasaki
Pond, 2003 (printed 2005)
Archival inkjet print
29 x 35"
2005.58

Sasaki is a Japanese artist who worked mostly on a series of staged self-portraits during her residency at Light Work in 2005. These cryptic but narrative personal images are highly influenced by the artwork of her native culture, and portray her or other Japanese women in the local setting of upstate New York. While here, she did some of her first large-format digital printing from her medium format negatives, and went on to have an exhibition of her work in the Light Work gallery in 2005. Her show was printed digitally at Community Darkrooms.

 

Matthew Swarts
Untitled, 2004
Archival inkjet print
45 x 38"
2004.85

Matthew Swarts was an Artist-in-Residence in 2004 and worked extensively with digital images. He brought 8 x 10" inkjet prints to Light Work that he then scanned at high resolution to create 30 x 40" digital prints. This piece, like others, contained "artifacts" generally thought of as undesirable, such as "micro-banding." It was then manipulated and accentuated to form a dimensional striped pattern while the other figural images were intentionally blurred to hide imperfections.

 

Scott Townsend
Virus Flowers, 2005
DVD Video, 1:10
2005.91

Townsend’s work is an example of new media and digital imaging in a video or interactive format, made possible by current technologies and development of the Internet. Artists use this type of work to reach a worldwide audience and encourage interaction. Townsend often has these interactive versions online concurrently with gallery showings of his work. Information or feedback gathered from this public interaction can then be added to the work. Townsend was an Artist-in-Residence at Light Work in June 2004. Not included in the NYC exhibition.

 

Hulleah Tsinhnahjinnie
Idelia, 1995
Dye sublimation print
8 x 10"
98.79

Tsinhnahjinnie’s work reflects the rich artistic background of her native Seminole, Muscogee, and Dine cultures. In this digitally collaged image, she portrays a Navajo and Nez Pierce woman with a cloud-filled background and moon with a sense of indigenous pride, as opposed to Western society’s exploitation and subjugation of native culture. She was an Artist-in-Residence at Light Work in 1995 and 1999.

 

Kim Waale
Campfire Tale Number 1, 2000
Artist Book
3.75 x 4.75"
01.16

Waale created Campfire Tale Number 1 in various formats: film, installation, and book. Stills from the original 16 mm black-and-white film were scanned and digitally manipulated to create the book and installation. Inkjet prints were assembled and bound to create the book. The tale is a "loose reenactment" of campfire horror stories from Waale’s youth with a secondary theme of human interaction with nature. She is a 2001 Light Work Grant recipient and a member of Light Work’s board of directors. Not included in the NYC exhibition.