Alison Rossiter
Canadian Kodak Limited, P. M. C. No. 6, expired February 1st, 1922,
processed 2017 (A), 2017
11 x 14 inches (image), silver gelatin print
opening bid: $8,000
buy it now: $12,500
Canadian Kodak Limited, P. M. C. No. 6, expired February 1st, 1922,
processed 2017 (B), 2017
11 x 14 inches (image), silver gelatin print
opening bid: $8,000
buy it now: $12,500
These two works (available individually or as a pair in the Radius auction) are from Rossiter's Expired Paper series. Large, starry-night landscape images like these are very rare in the series; the only other two similar works are held in major museum collections. Both made on Kodak paper from 1922, the night sky is the result of mold in the gelatin surface of the paper.
Rossiter's camera-less photographs are made using expired, vintage gelatin silver papers dating from the early twentieth century through the 1980s. The artist's experimental processes draw on the photograms of László Moholy-Nagy and the paintings of Morris Louis, resulting in painterly or geometric abstractions that illuminate the unique characteristics of each sheet of paper.
Alison Rossiter merges traditional methods of photography with more experimental techniques in her work, using a labor-intensive darkroom process that allows ample opportunity for chance. Working directly with expired photographic papers, she reduces the medium to its minimal components, revealing the qualities inherent in paper to produce subtle, abstract compositions. Her ethereal, minimalist works are in permanent collections at the National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; National Gallery of Canada; J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, CA; Minneapolis Institute of Art; and SITE Santa Fe, among other institutions. She has also had her work published in Art in America, The New York Times, and elsewhere. Her first title with Radius Books, Expired Paper, was shortlisted for the Paris Photo-Aperture Award for Best Photobook of 2017.
Work courtesy of the artist and Yossi Milo Gallery.
