JHB Gallery is excited to debut a special solo exhibition featuring Ellen Carey’s new large-scale Polaroid Crush & Pull series, in the PRISMES sector at PARIS PHOTO, 2018. Carey will be present throughout the duration of the fair.
In this series, Carey combines both Polaroid and photogram using the Polaroid negative to create new abstract forms composed from chemistry-laden Polaroid pods and the light-tight color darkroom. “The great invention that is Polaroid–the game changer in photography and science, technology and art–offers me a chance to combine innovation with imagination,” says Carey. “Echoing Polaroid’s tag line See what develops.”
With the artist’s intervention of physically crushing the negative it becomes both object and receiver of light. Polaroid’s 20th century instant technology meets the wonder of 19th century photograms, forging a new photographic object. Carey asks: “What is a 21st century photograph? In my work, the referent is removed, I use only light, photography’s indexical, and in the color darkroom, no light is allowed, except upon exposure. Replacing ‘normal’ chemistry with dyes in the Polaroid’s “pods” escalates these breaks in photography’s collective histories, letting light create my Crush & Pull as a Polaroid Photogram, a new 21st photographic object.”
At the invitation of The Ministry of Culture and PARIS PHOTO, independent curator Fannie Escoulen has included Carey’s Crush & Pull series among the selections for PATHS ELLES X PARIS PHOTO. As mentioned in the press release: “Escoulen leads us on a promenade along the aisles of Paris Photo retracing the history of photography through the prisme of women; a historic and contemporary stroll in search of treasures unearthed by exhibiting galleries and publishers.”
In addition, JHB Gallery is delighted to announce that this series has been selected for the JPMorgan Chase Art Collection “Curators’ Highlights” guide. The onsite guide includes 20 of the JPMorgan selected “must see” photographs and photo-based works at the participating galleries at PARIS PHOTO.
