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James Welling @ MACS

James Welling: Cento
23 May until 29 August

“This latest series began in 2018 at the MET (Metropolitan Museum of Art) in New York, when James Welling photographed the bust of a Roman empress of Syrian origin, Julia Mamaea, which he then printed in a range of colours based on the early photographic printing method of collotype.

Moved by the fluidity of the dyes imbuing the portrait and the statue’s stone and returning colour to the face, James Welling realised that this faded, translucent rendering achieved a twofold step back in time: to the polychrome statues of Antiquity and to the black & white photolithography of the first albums that documented 19th century archaeological missions.

These multiple prints from a single negative of Julia Mamaea, a seminal, matricial image, then led to several visits to archaeological sites and museums, notably in Athens and Eleusis, as well as theoretical research into the colours used in Antiquity, in particular by Aristotle. The philosopher’s observation of coloured objects in nature, notably of plants, finds a strange and distant echo in James Welling’s photographic process, through his description of the phenomena of fixation, rinsing and transformation of tints, for example of green foliage.”

MACS
Rue Sainte-Louise, 82
7301 Hornu
Belgium


Location: Belgium Type:

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