Cyanotyping

2016 - Present

I had been treating fabric in a screen room, and was very pleased with how well I had done with avoiding getting chemicals on myself. Then we went outside.

I vaguely remember cyanotyping in some elementary school class as a kid, but I wouldn't return to it again until I found some pre-treated paper at an estate sale in 2016.

Then, at an Explorer's Guild workshop in 2018, Reigh walked a group of us through mixing the chemicals and coating paper in the solution in a dark room while we wore red headlamps. We made test sheets and generally experimented.

One of the recurring themes of my valiant attempts is a desire to find something that's the right balance between precision and process. Cyanotyping lives at that intersection for me. It's very satisfying. I love working with the sun. I love the simultaneous predictability and unpredictability. I love thinking in negative space and reverse. I love the namesake shade of blue.

Buying pre-treated fabrics opens up the color choices available, as there are many photosensitive chemicals.

I mixed and treated the chemicals for these sheets, then used Sharpie on transparency film to incorporate doodles onto the paper.

The Sharpie wasn't quite opaque enough to block all the sunlight from coming through, so for future projects I would use oil-based paint pens.

In 2019, I collaborated with Giuliana Funkhouser to pretreat dozens of fabric bandanas and a large tablecloth with the photosentisive chemicals. During the Far Flung Forest that year, I led a bandana-making workshop and enlisted other artists to help me make the tablecloth. The tablecloth was the first large-scale art project I've done that left me with a physical object. It was deeply gratifying to create something so large and communal.

Exposing a bandana to the sun, which begins the developing process. After 10-15 minutes, we gently rinsed this off in water.

The completed altar cloth.

I usually use my cloth for tarot readings. The color mellowed after a few days.

The tablecloth and bandanas drying after being treated. Working in a screen room was luxurious after working in dark rooms while wearing a headlamp.

Folks laid down on the tablecloth, and I scattered blocks, game pieces, and letters on its surface.

We ate off it for the rest of the weekend. As long as the detergent doesn't include a surfactant, cyantotyped fabric can be washed.

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