Another Transfiguration


Another Transfiguration


I did a lot of transparency printing for my 3D art class last term. When you print out a high contrast image on acetate transparency paper, you’re left with a graphically simplified but interesting result. I love layering multiple prints on top of one another; taking a stack of three or four photos and skewing two of them slightly to the left or flipping one around and one on its side. The result is almost a graphical representation of the phrase e pluribus unum. You take all these different things, smash them together, and what emerges is something totally unique. 
I noticed a similar effect playing out when I looked at personal and institutional pandemic responses. Everyone has been layering their own shit on top of the pandemic, and in turn, the pandemic flips things around and distorts them —but not in a totally random or unpredictable way. The last of an acetate composite print is not random; it doesn’t look like it came out of a blender. Instead, it looks predictably distorted, and if you gaze long enough, you can untangle it.

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