honorable mention
Elzbieta Kurowska canada
title
Light Forms
To implement this technique in my art photography I needed to replace hard resins with the material that had similar optical properties but was soft, malleable, and easy to deform. Through a systematic scientific search, I came across a perfect material - organic gels. Not only did these gels glow with light and vivid colors when subjected to deformation and viewed in cross-polarized light field. They were also predisposed to form life-resembling shapes. All this allowed me to build and photograph complex gel structures that resemble otherworldly life forms made out of light – Light Forms.
One day I suddenly realized that the process of creation of Light Forms feels like creation of life itself. As in scientific theory of life origins, I start from forming “organic” shapes from the amorphous, pale gelatinous matter. Then I subject my gel objects to the stress (of deformation rather than cosmic radiation). Finally, I illuminate them in the cross-polarized light field and capture their transformation into a glowing, vibrant and strangely beautiful “life”.
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entry description
Light Forms are small (measuring 1.5-2 inches in diameter) objects which I build in my studio from solidified soft, transparent organic gels using my expertise in biochemistry. Because these gels spontaneously form life-resembling shapes, and because they also have ability to glow when subjected to deformation and photographed in cross-polarized light, the resulting images resemble organic life forms made out of light, emerging from the darkness.about the photographer
I am a photographer and a biochemist. As a scientist, I was always fascinated by the origins of life; specifically by the moment in Earth’s history when the amorphous organic matter self-organized and transformed into first living organisms, probably because of the extreme environmental stress (cosmic radiation, powerful thunderstorms etc.) on the young planet. I never thought that my fascination may translate into art but… Three years ago I stumbled upon photographic images made using photo elasticity, a long abandoned visualization technique from the field of materials engineering. This technique was originally developed to visualize deformations in translucent models made of hard resins and photographed in polarized light. The resulting images were used to analyze stresses revealed by bursts of light and vibrant colors.To implement this technique in my art photography I needed to replace hard resins with the material that had similar optical properties but was soft, malleable, and easy to deform. Through a systematic scientific search, I came across a perfect material - organic gels. Not only did these gels glow with light and vivid colors when subjected to deformation and viewed in cross-polarized light field. They were also predisposed to form life-resembling shapes. All this allowed me to build and photograph complex gel structures that resemble otherworldly life forms made out of light – Light Forms.
One day I suddenly realized that the process of creation of Light Forms feels like creation of life itself. As in scientific theory of life origins, I start from forming “organic” shapes from the amorphous, pale gelatinous matter. Then I subject my gel objects to the stress (of deformation rather than cosmic radiation). Finally, I illuminate them in the cross-polarized light field and capture their transformation into a glowing, vibrant and strangely beautiful “life”.
back to gallery
