Marginalia Works
2013–2015

The Marginalia works were produced as a side effect of the work A Partial Disassembling of an Invention Without a Future: Helter-Skelter and Random Notes in Which the Pulleys and Cogwheels Are Lying Around at Random All Over the Workbench. Cyanotype solution can stain any porous or exposed surface, and during the coating of materials drop cloths were used to protect the floor and other surfaces. These drop cloths were recovered from other projects and repurposed here (during the production that occurred at the Barbican Centre, old scenographic scrims from their theatrical productions were used as drop cloths). The result is a ghost image of the objects being coated during the production of the aforementioned work, and thus these are ostensibly works produced in the margins of other works (hence the title Marginalia).

These works are not washed in water as is usual in the cyanotype process, hence the work will continue to change over time, darkening during periods of exposure to UV light, and lightening during storage. One unique quality of cyanotype solution is that it lightens if it is rested (placed in a dark space for a period), hence the works will continue to shift from a light blue-green color to a dark navy blue color, depending on the duration of their exposure to light, moving between these hues for the duration of their existence. The works themselves could be considered paintings, but are just as legitimately photographs, the distinction between the two being arbitrary in this instance (although, regardless of medium classification, they are always changing, always reacting to their circumstance unlike their conventional counterparts).

Titling Convention:

The date attributed to the work is the year of its first exhibition, which is separate from the production date included in the work’s title. A final description of the work, for example one that would appear on a wall didactic in an exhibition space, might read:

Marginalis (Los Angeles, California, May 1–August 1, 2014)
2014
Cyanotype chemistry on canvas
55 x 127 inches

Here annotated:
Marginalis (Los Angeles, California [city and state/country of production], May 1–August 1, 2014 [dates
of production])
2014 [date of first exhibition]
Cyanotype chemistry on canvas
55 x 127 inches