One Hundred Years of Solitude (2023-ongoing)
These works are silver on black glass and are produced using the 19th century chemical photography process: wet-plate collodion. The wet-plate collodion process dates back to 1850 and was used in the subsequent decades by artists like Carleton Watkins in the early development of landscape photography, often around Yosemite National Park.
The series uses this antiquated and beautiful process to document landscapes from video games, specifically games that are set in the 19th century. The series captures primitive video game landscapes dating back to games from 1974, roughly 100 years after the wet-plate collodion was being used. Contextually, these works meditate on Western culture’s homogeneity and inability to evolve past its own ideological fixtures. As video game media emerged, it was so quick to revert back to the depiction of these places and forms. A feature of these works, which is a recurring tactic in the practice, is how the subject/images relate to the medium's materiality. In this case, moments from these weightless digital landscapes are materialised in silver on glass, the result of extractive processes that tear holes in the surface of the Earth.
Medium: Wet-plate collodion on black glass.
Dimensions: 20.32cm x 25.4cm
Installation view at Royal Hibernian Academy. 2023. (Photo by Ros Kavanagh)
