E L E M E N T S
Air, Earth, Fire, Water. And we, the ether.
Elements began in January 2021 as a series of experimental persistence while using a Polaroid Spectra camera. Spectra film is no longer in production due to a jamming issue with the camera, one that is easily remedied if, you rub the metal prongs inside with a bit of toothpaste on a q-tip (and of course, wipe it again after with a dry q-tip). But I, adamant not to lose yet another film type to our modern-day persistence of disposability, decided to see what I could make with the camera jamming. As these not quite exposed, but released, images emerged, I pushed the ink with my fingers as my rollers, pulled them across surfaces (wood, bricks, my hands, walls, gravel, anything I could find) and eventually, introduced them to the elements. Whatever felt right, was what I engaged.
I kept experimenting.
I would burn myself rolling a lighter or a match against a Polaroid, molding it with heat and pressing it into form with my fingers. I would leave them in a window for weeks, to see what the sun and air did. I would submerge them in water for days, sometimes alone, sometimes with found rocks, sometimes with plants that were growing roots, or others that were freshly picked and dying. I would bury them in dirt — for an entire moon cycle.
At this point I realized I was creating from an urge, based on temporality and communicated as a feeling, with elements as my co-creator and guide. Once the Polaroid is immersed I have no say, no control — and can only wait to see what will become. As I learn to lean into and trust this process, I, too, am becoming.
