Earth/Mars

2022, cyanotypes of open-source Mars images from NASA and images of the Australian desert

Images above by Haus der Kulturen der Welt for the exhibition, Commonings, during Berlin Art Week, 14-18 September 2022. Facilitated by Olga Schubert, Gigi Argyropoulou, Alessandra Pomarico, Mahmoud Al-Shaer and Rahul Gudipudi.

Cyanotypes of the deserts of Central Australia are juxtaposed with those of open-source Mars images by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. These images, normally a deep Prussian blue, are toned with various experimental botanical inks. Side by side, these dry landscapes, both contested lands, may function as a good starting point to think through existing settler-colonial violence and regimes on Earth such as with Palestine, the Philippines and many others. The challenges of getting to space in human history went from an international space race to a more individualized one by billionaires, increasing discourse on inequality and catastrophe on Earth. Thinking of Planet B may help to clarify the intentions and goals with Planet A. Can the collective challenges faced on Mars lead people to find or seek out common ground that has been missing on Earth?

https://archiv.hkw.de/media/texte/pdf/2022_2/programm_2022/new_alphabet_school_ commonings.pdf

PROCESS

To print the images, I coated the A4-sized sheets of Fabriano 300g/m² hot press watercolour paper with a combined mixture of Part A (potassium ferricyanide) and Part B (ferric ammonium citrate) Jacquard cyanotype solutions in a dark cabinet. After the liquid dried, I placed the paper inside an improvised UV box — a small cardboard box with a UV lamp on top that had a 26-cm distance from the paper. I used a UV lamp that emitted 50 watts of energy with a wavelength of 390-400 nm UVA. The images were exposed to UV light from between four to eight minutes.

The cyanotypes are left to dry overnight.

To tone a print, the cyanotype is submerged into a 1:10 solution of bleach:water until some of the blue precipitate is removed (left and centre). The print is submerged in toning agents (plants or soil in boiling water) until it changes colour.