Old and new photo techniques meet in new exhibition at Te Whare Toi
If you’ve ever wondered what a photo created without a camera looks like, now you can find out, with artist Jonathan Kay’s new exhibition, Icebound, opening at Te Whare Toi o Heretaunga – Hastings City Art Gallery this Saturday, November 5, with a floor talk by the artist at 11am.
In Icebound, Kay surveys two Te Waipounamu glaciers, Haupapa - Tasman and Te Moeka o Tūawe - Fox, exploring ice as a material. He immerses the audience in an intimate encounter with this fragile matter, through a range of old and new photographic techniques.
Using both digital images and cyanotype photograms, Kay examines our environment, a subject matter he says he’s always been interested in.
“Back in 2017 I started to get more involved with investigating climate change. As I began to research, I began to feel really overwhelmed by the sheer amount of information and data, and the weight of it all,” he says.
“It all seemed very abstract, so I wanted to examine which environments in Aotearoa are being impacted by climate change. Exploring these glaciers is my way of drawing connections to these vast and ancient ecosystems which make visible the perilous effects of a warming climate.”
Over a period of five years, Kay travelled to the glaciers to record these environments, observing the lakes and icebergs that carve off during melting, and following the streams and rivers which connect this water system.
“I was interested in making work which connected to the landscape itself, reflecting its unique qualities and that goes beyond the expected landscape image,” Kay says.
Jonathan Kay with a work from his cyanotype series, Ice Field, at Te Whare Toi o Heretaunga – Hastings City Art Gallery. Photo/Supplied.
"I really enjoy projects where I can’t imagine the end result. So, I started to imagine what it would be like to touch a glacier - what does it feel like? And what would it be like to connect with its surface? How would I do this photographically? With this in mind, I decided to use cyanotypes, through a camera-less process known as the photogram.”
In the fabric series Ice Field, Kay’s images were made by placing the cyanotype sheets within and against sections of the glacier - crevasses, ice caves, ice canyons, ice arches and seracs (a block or column of glacial ice).
“The resulting images are a consequence of a reaction between the physical forces; water, ice, and light. This historical process has been used in a way that connects the viewer intimately to the forms, structures, and details of glacial terrains.”
- Icebound runs at Te Whare Toi Heretaunga – Hastings City Art Gallery until January 29. Jonathan Kay will speak about the exhibition and his practice at 11am on Saturday, November 5. Entry is free and no bookings
are required. For more information go to www.hastingscityartgallery.co.nz
What is a cyanotype?
Cyanotype photograms are a late 19th century photographic technique, where paper is coated with a light-sensitive mixture of two chemicals which are left to dry. Once dry, the paper is covered with a negative original or various objects and exposed to UV light to create a bright blue image. Kay’s cyanotypes are made with fabric.
“The fabric is coated with cyanotype chemistry, which comes in direct contact with the glacier. So the image is created through exposure to the sun and a chemical reaction between the ice and cyanotype.”
