Black Curl Works
2010–2013

With the Black Curl works, the paper is exposed to cyan, magenta, and yellow without shifting the magnets between exposures. The color “banding” in the Black Curl works is due to environmental effects (for example, the paper shifting under its own weight between exposures, the currents of air produced by the HVAC system, or general vibrations in the room), and the inability of the magnets to fully support the weight and contours of the paper (the magnets are put under excessive stress because of the curling paper, which causes them to creep or migrate during the exposures). The Black Curl works use this movement of the photographic paper to produce the colors that appear in the work. In short, the Black Curl works are not only the result of the tension between the size of the paper, the confines of the darkroom, and the artist’s own body, but also exploit the effects of the architectural infrastructure (i.e., the HVAC system, building vibration, etc.), which is expressed through the registration (or misregistration) of the colors. If the printing circumstance were “ideal,” or not subject to incidental environmental effects, the works would be black and white (because the accumulation of cyan, magenta, and yellow is pure black), the bands of color are similar to the effects of misregistration of the printing plates in offset printing. The colors on the work’s surface act as an index of this network of tensions within the printing process.

These follow the same titling convention as the Three Color Curl works. For example:

Black Curl (CMY/Five Magnet: Irvine, California, March 25, 2010, Fujicolor Crystal Archive Super Type C, Em. No. 165–021, 05110)
2011
Color photographic paper
51 1/2 x 106 3/8 inches