Susan Bulley
‘Brigitte #1’, ‘Brigitte #2’,
‘Chandelier #1’, ‘Chandelier #2’
All works cyanotypes, 2009
‘New Talent’ reveals recent work created by students at Sunderland University’s Fine Art course. Susan Bulley’s ‘cyanotypes’ are based on paintings the artist made about the Fritz Lang 1927 film ‘Metropolis’. The paintings were made in unconventional ways, but are at one remove here. They were then placed onto light-sensitive paper to create negatives and sometimes positives of them.
The atmospheric contrasts between light and dark in the four works here resemble those of Lang’s films. Subjects become difficult to decipher, or even seem menacing, magical or mysterious. It becomes impossible to gauge what spaces are being shown to us, as though we had entered a darkened room and were stumbling through its half-light.
A ‘cyanotype’ is a photograph created using one of the earliest methods of photographic printing. The process was invented in 1842 by the great British scientist Sir John Herschel. Cyanotypes are the origin of the term ‘blueprint’: the process enabled Victorian engineers to make copies of their drawings easily and quickly.
Exhibition Open Fri 5th March- Sat 1 May 2010 Preview Tue 9 March 6-8pm
