carol pfeffer: Optical Photograms Birefringence Display
ist's Statement Cameraless Photography
These cameraless photographs display the optical phenomenon birefringence. Birefringence is an optical effect that occurs when polarized light is passed through a stressed plastic.
An isotropic material, say a plain piece of glass, has optical properties that are uniform in all directions and in all locations. It will not show any preference or variance with light polarized or unpolarized. It looks flat and clear. However, when a material is internally asymmetric in structure and subjected to stress, its optical behavior varies according to the direction in which it is measured.
In this case the work begins by composing an abstract sculpture made of plastic. I use a translucent polymer material and stress it by mechanical gesture. This creates an internal disturbance due to force redistribution inside the plastic.
birefringence#2
The composition is then exposed by polarized light in the darkroom. The result is a vivid display of color where the internal structure of the plastic was displaced by the composition.
The prints are made by placing the plastic sculpture an emulsion coated polyester material and exposing it with polarized light.
Carol Pfeffer always had a preference for the abstract over the concrete. Her work, which she describes as, non-representational photography, puts meaning first.
The work is highly focused and always carries her signature watermark of bold and diverting abstraction. This reflects Carol's commitment to resolve complex issues without figurative references. The substantive content reflects a maturity that comes from introspection and personal confrontation with complexity.
Carol works in a highly gestural fashion with disciplined spontaneity. The process produces unavoidably exciting prints with strong cognitive and aesthetic impact. The subject of her projects can range anywhere from interpretations of celestial landscape and microbiology to more psychological interpretations of the subconscious and the imagination. The work is both process and content driven with strong scientific sensibility.
Her excitement for scientific exploration is pervasive in her work and techniques which exploit the geometric optics and chemistry of the darkroom. This is where the artist meets the scientist.
Carol has developed a variety of original and unprecedented cliche verre, contact and projection techniques producing unique cameraless color prints .
Much of the work examines the behavior of material exposed to visible light range radiation or heat. A large body of her work concentrates on 18th Century Optical effects integrated with abstract painting and gesture.
Her undergraduate degree is in Physics where her concentration was in low temperature thermodynamics.
Carol's work has appeared on the front ocover of Physics in Canada, in Photo District News, New York Arts Magazine and Physics World. She recently received an award from the Canadian Association of Physicists for the 2003 "Art in Physics" Competition.
