Ferens Open

Blue Moon, a white sphere 'cyanotyped' into a block of silk threads, is part of Ferens Art Gallery's Open Exhibition.
2nd February 2019 - 14th April 2019

Ferens Art Gallery, Queen Victoria Square, Carr Lane, Hull, HU1 3RA

Opening hours:
Monday to Saturday 10am - 4.30pm
Sunday 11am - 4pm

A big thank you to Friends of the Ferens for awarding Blue Moon with their first prize. Happy to use the award for an upcoming project.

Silent Collision

September - Equinox - the sunlight just strong enough to expose this sculpture. Like Blue Moon - just smaller - it is a 3-D cyanotype. And like Blue Moon, it consists of nothing but silk threads - and light. However, here two spheres touching each other are embedded in the blue block of vertical threads. Silent Collision was repeatedly exposed to late September’s sunshine thus leading to varying cyan-blue shades that merge into each other.

dimensions: 15cm x 21cm x 44cm

Blue Moon

More photos of Blue Moon: The photogram of a sphere, cyanotyped into a body of silk threads that are attached to and sewn into two acrylic glasses.

Capturing the luminosity in a sculpture like this is one of those things. The camera "sees" an image that looks quite different from what my eyes see - as if it has its own idea of how to "translate" luminosity, shading and depth into 2D.

Blue Moon was photographed with nothing but the natural November light filtering through the north-facing studio window, and thus became a subject for familiarising myself with the manual settings of our camera...

Globe's sister

A dream come true: Globe's sister so to speak - but while the former has been screen-printed, Blue Moon is cyanotyped: white silk-threads have been dyed with a photosensitive solution and exposed to sunlight. In other words - the sphere has been 'blue-printed' into a body of white silk-threads that are sewn to two acrylic glasses.
Depending on lighting the blue varies from royal blue to a dark cyan.
Thus, this was - and is - a photo challenge too.



Details


silk-thread, acrylic glass, weights (sash window)
33cm x 33cm x 82cm (109cm including weights)
Read more about the process here.
see also Themes / Process (May- September 2017)

Blueprint

After a lengthy exposure period - it turned autumn and sun light is receding... this threaded silk piece has been processed as any cyanotype / photo / photogram:

exposure - stop(bath) - rinse and dry

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PS: this was four years ago - a layered version.

process

another three-d negative: a black rubber ball embedded into white silk threads. My hands and body slowly but surely learning how to move, twist and pull, tie and sew a single thread of silk (in)to two opposing acrylic glasses; until eventually… my fingers become fluent.

About 10'000knots and 4km of silk thread later, ready to be 'blue printed', so that what is light becomes dark and what is dark becomes light.

find more images here (facebook)

it works!

White silk-threads - cyanotyped. Dyed and processed as a whole body. It works. This is a study - to find out just this. - Nice to watch how over time the blue becomes more and more saturated.
The white shape is spheric - but slightly distorted and asymmetric, on purpose.



12cm x 12cm x 44cm
silk threads (cyanotyped) / PET / bicycle tube / steel

By the way, find more about the process in previous two posts.

3-d cyano print

Exposure to sun light and...

...rinse and developing bath.

Work in progress

In the studio, developing a 3-dimensional negative - a test-run for a new piece.


A block of silk-threads. A black roundish shape - integrated within the threads. Soon to be dyed and exposed to sun light...

Oval reflection

Oval reflection is on its way to Sweden. It is a piece similar to Globe. Yet instead of screen printed the silk threads are cyanotyped and then processed with sunlight.

Dimensions: 17.5cm x 34cm x 14cm

Find more images here. [www.facebook.com/sabinej.bieli]

'Cyano' in 3-D

Cyanotype on silk threads, 17.5cm x 34cm x 14cm. This piece bears all the marks of trying and finding out - so I learned a lot... The white 'sphere' within is not centred but an asymmetric oval.

The whole thing is, or rather its layers are, a 'blueprint' using sunlight to cyanotype the white 'egg' in the threaded blue body.

See also post on 19 August 2013 Is it or is it not?

A snapshot

... of a page in my notebook. Another cyanotype trial

Cyanotyping

Testing various papers combined with all kind of negatives. To print 'cyano' these are exposed to various light sources - thus juggling with umpteen parameters.

Impressive is the impact of January-February's afternoon sun. It is as powerful as the 125 Watt UV bulb I use ... and for free.

The negatives for these prints are taken from a series of photographs: Drawings in the sky

Blueprint

... for 2013.

By chance I came across a photographic printing process, Cyanotype.

First attempts; a feather 'printed' on thin silk organza.