Collages and interventions on photographic films - Collages e intervenciones sobre películas fotográficas

In English and Spanish - En inglés y en español

Text in English

A few months ago I learned about the existence of NFTs and from conversations with a friend Leceste -whose work I recommend to take into account- I decided to try to enter this new world of crypto-art.

The question then arose as to what kind of work I could offer in NFT format, and I decided to resort to a series of tests and experiments I had been doing, manipulating old photographic film.

In August 2021 I will mint my first NFT in Hic Et Nunc, Profiles:

Profiles - Perfiles

With Profiles I started the first series of works in which I worked from collages and analog interventions on photographic films and slides.

Profiles is a small analog collage, made with fragments cut from 35 mm color photographic film, which have been cut, assembled and intervened with inks, "stained glass" paintings and scratches made with different sharp elements.

The result was a small slide that was backlit and captured by a digital photograph, which in jpg format was will minted in HEN.

Working with these materials allowed me to make interesting explorations around celluloid, the reaction of the film and the "emulsion" to different physical and chemical agents, its inking, etcetera.

The works that correspond to this first series of work are the following:

Mar de fondo

Mar de fondo is also a collage made with fragments cut from an old 35mm color slide somewhat deteriorated. Mar de fondo in Spanish is a metaphorical expression that indicates that there is a malaise or a latent problem, not made explicit.

El mensajero

The messenger is an old 35 mm color slide quite deteriorated that has been intervened with inks and translucent enamels.

El barco

The boat also used an old 35 mm slide that had become practically translucent, since when it was washed -to remove the dust- almost all of the emulsion that contained the image photographed at the time had been detached. To this tenuous background was added the collage of a cut of a color photographic film, inks and translucent enamels.

Sunset - Ocaso

Sunset - Ocaso is a collage made from the combination of two old color slides of 35 mm very deteriorated and that when washed lost much of the emulsion that contained the image photographed at the time.

Pasado presente

To make these works I resorted to fragments of photographic film and slides (35 mm), most of which had belonged to an aunt (artist), who at one period of her career had made various works with these materials.

My aunt had invited me to experiment on these materials - when I was a child - using at that time sharp instruments with which she marked white lines on the emulsion.

In addition to "scratching" with sharp elements, she had also tried other types of interventions. These are some images of those experiments carried out in the 80s:

Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)

En español

Hace unos meses supe de la existencia de los NFTs y a partir de las conversaciones mantenidas con una amiga, Leceste -cuya obra recomiendo tener en cuenta- decidí intentar ingresar a eplorar a este nuevo mundo del criptoarte.

Surgió entonces la cuestión en torno a qué tipo de obra podía ofrecer en formato NFT, y decidí entonces recurrir a una serie de pruebas y experiencias que venía realizando, manipulando viejas películas fotográficas.

En agosto de 2021 acuñe mi primer NFT en Hic Et Nunc, Perfiles:

Profiles - Perfiles

Con Perfiles comencé la primer serie de obras en las que trabajé a partir de collages e intervenciones analógicas sobre películas fotográficas y diapositivas.

Perfiles es un pequeño collage analógico, realizado con fragmentos recortados de películas fotográficas color de 35 mm, que han sido recortadas, ensambladas e intervenidas con tintas, pinturas "vitrales" y raspados realizados con diferentes elementos punzantes.

El resultado ha sido una pequeña diapositiva que retroiluminada ha sido capturada por una fotografía digital, que en formato jpg fue acuñado en HEN

El trabajo con estos materiales me permitió realizar interesantes exploraciones en torno al celuloide, la reacción de la película y la “emulsión” a distintos agentes físicos y químicos, su entintado, etcétera.

Las obras que corresponden a esta primer serie de trabajo son las siguientes:

Mar de fondo

Mar de fondo también es un collage realizado con fragmentos recortados de una vieja diapositiva color de 35mm algo deteriorada.

El mensajero

El mensajero es una vieja diapositiva color de 35 mm bastante deteriorada que ha sido intervenida con tintas y esmaltes traslúcidos.

El barco

En el barco también se ha utilizado una vieja diapositiva de 35 mm que había quedado prácticamente traslúcida, ya que al lavarla -para quitarle el polvo que tenía- se había desprendido casi la totalidad de la emulsión que contenía la imágen fotografiada en su momento. A ese fondo tenue se le agregó el collage de un recorte de una película fotográfica color, tintas y esmaltes traslúcidos.

Sunset - Ocaso

Sunset - Ocaso es un collage realizado a partir de la combinación de dos viejas diapositivas color de 35 mm muy deterioradas y que al ser lavadas perdieron gran parte de la emulsión que contenía la imagen fotografiada oportunamente.

Pasado presente

Para realizar estos trabajos recurrí a fragmentos películas fotográficas y diapositivas (de 35 mm), la mayoría de las cuales habían sido de una tía (artista), que en un período de su carrera había realizado distintas obras con estos materiales.

Cuando yo era un niño mi tía me había invitado a experimentar con estos elementos utilizando en aquel momento instrumentos punzantes con los que marcaba líneas blancas sobre la emulsión.

Entre las que fueron sus cosas, encontré una cantidad interesante de material, las partes finales de los negativos fotográficos color que ella había acumulado junto a algunas cajas de diapositivas y películas fotográficas (negativos color y blanco y negro)que quedaron expuestas a la humedad, al polvo y otros agentes externos que produjeron modificaciones y deteriorios en muchos de ellos.

En sus obras y búsquedas con estos materiales mi tía había probado con distintas formas de intervenir los distintos fragmentos de película fotográfica. Estas son algunas imágenes de aquellas experimentaciones realizadas por ella hacia los años 80:

Out of series - Fuera de serie

Texts in English and Spanish - Textos en inglés y en español In this opportunity I am going to refer to some of my works in HEN that were made outside of series or groups of works. Axons and dendrites Axons and dendrites is a composition made from the collage and fusion of some old deteriorated photographic films and an image downloaded from a free image bank. By means of digital editing, the images were manipulated and merged, altering dimensions, position, contrasts, colors, dimensions, among other variables. Axons and dendrites intends to refer to the brain activity involved in the creation of a work. Creating a work implies selecting elements, materials, the choice of techniques, shapes, techniques, colors.... These choices imply an affective commitment, an intellectual effort and a physical body that carries out the task, that modifies the world, that operates on reality to add to it something that was not there before. I am convinced that taking pieces of the world to ...

Abstractions - Abstracciones

Text in English and Spanish - Texto en inglés y en español In October 2021 I minted in HEN a new series, this time consisting of purely abstract works . For some time now I have been in the habit of trying to pay attention to certain images and details that we tend to overlook in everyday life, trying to consider different elements, spaces, objects that we usually do not stop to observe carefully. The idea is to be attentive to the possibility of discovering -at any moment and in any place- a striking, suggestive, interesting, attractive image. From this attempt of attentive observation, I have been taking photographs in very diverse situations, in which I have found some element, some surface, some detail, some particular texture that has caught my attention. In the photographs I have obtained, I have tried to explore mainly textures and lattices, looking for the possibility of highlighting -through digital editing and manipulation- their particularities, their except...

Summering from the past - Veraneos del pasado

Texts in English and Spanish - Textos en inglés y en español The experiences with photographic film were stimulating and generated in me a growing enthusiasm for the possibilities that arose from the use of these materials and the different techniques that I was exploring through their use and manipulation. I decided to visit my grandmother's house to look for more photographic films to continue with my experiences. I found an important amount of material, part of what I found was almost totally deteriorated, but I also found some frames in good condition and others with great deterioration, but that still allowed me to recognize -at least partially- the image captured many years ago, at the moment when those photographs were taken. I then began to clean, sort, classify and digitize this new found material. After selecting and digitizing the recovered photographs, I began to work with the ones I found most interesting, making different tests on them by manipulating and digit...

Strage landescapes – Paisajes extraños

In English and Spanish - En ingles y en español Strage landescapes The second series of NFTs that I will mint in HEN was: Strage landescapes - Paisajes extraños. For this series I continued to work, as I had been doing with the found photographic films. To arrive at the final works I made numerous attempts and tests. I digitized and manipulated a significant number of frames, until I was able to obtain images and compositions that I considered interesting. Strange landescape 1 - Paisaje extraño 1 The first work Strange landescape 1 - Paisaje extraño 1, was will mint without its title by mistake. For the realization of this image I started from a rather deteriorated 35mm color frame that was digitized and manipulated in its contrast, saturation and other variables using Gimp, the digital editing software that I have used for all my NFTs. To that base image was added, via digital collage, the windmill, which was digitally cropped from an image obtained from a black and white photogr...

New mixtures - Nuevas mixturas de fotogramas

Text in English and Spanish - Texto en inglés y en español New mixtures I am going to refer to a group of works that without being part of a specific series have a fundamental point in common that allows me to group them in the same group: they were all elaborated from analog black and white photographs taken by me during the 90's. These photographs from the 90's were retaken and reelaborated by merging and mixing them with images from old deteriorated analog photographic films. These photographs from the 90's were retaken and reworked by merging and mixing them with images from old deteriorated analog photographic film. These mixed images will be minted in HEN at different times. Deconstruction Decontruction is based on a photograph taken -from the street- of a demolished upper floor, in which very few parts were still standing, standing out among what remained were the openings. The frames of doors that are no longer there, with no walls to hold on to, are presented as...

The works in Dartroom - Las obras en Dartroom

Text in English and Spanish - Texto en inglés y en español Translated to English with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version) Towards the end of November 2021 I started to create a new series of works in Dartroom, based on my own drawings and paintings. The analogical drawings, paintings and engravings were reworked using the possibilities offered by digital tools: adding layers, wefts, textures, producing chromatic variations, contrast, brightness among many other variables, trying to exploit the enormous possibilities offered by digital editing. For the elaboration of these works I resorted to a great extent to mixtures and fusions with textures and wefts coming from other paintings and photographs. My intention is that the works coined in Dartroom speak for themselves, allowing different interpretations and readings, which is why I will not elaborate on what each of them means to me, but I will say in general that they are linked to themes and issues that I personally consider of th...

Presentation - Presentación

Text in English and Spanish - Texto en inglés y en español In English I i ntroduce myself: I'm Rodrigo, throughout my life I have felt the need to make plastic works, objects, drawings, paintings, photographs, etc.. I try to produce works of art with intensity and I try to reflect that in my works. Sometimes I carry out almost exclusively aesthetic, playful searches, but in general, most of the time I produce works elaborated around themes that I consider relevant and transcendent, such as the issue of diversity (sexual, ethnic, cultural, etc.), the need to deconstruct hegemonic models or at least dispute with them, time and space, space-time, .... As for the modes of realization I am particularly attracted to the mixture (of techniques and materials above all), I believe that the mixture, the combination adds, enriches, multiplies, expands. The works that I will mint in NFT seek precisely that mixture of the analogical with the digital, of the material with the virtual? Drawings, ...

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