PIEDRAS / AGAINST CLASSIFICATION, 2014

June Crespo

Edition of 5 (signed and numbered)
Inkjet print with UV ink on press paper.
120 x 80 cm
Price: 800€ (SOLD OUT)

 

The image is the result of different minerals subjected to the light of a scanner. The technique reminds us to the origins of experimental and scientific photography without camera. Anna Atkins worked with blueprint capturing botanical samples, Moholy-Nagy and Man Ray used it putting objects on an emulsified surface and exposing it to light. Volume becomes flat, and stones appear cut out, floating over a shading background, generated from a light projected on the ceiling. The relation figure-background refers to a certain image typology present on ethnographic catalogues of mineralogy, jewels, and advertising photography. Far from classifying or cataloguing, the elements activate themselves on a mechanical poetry of the display. The compositions depart from an affective gesture of a face situated outside of a body. They put into question human imaginary creating correspondences beyond the mineral world.

 

“Fusion, pressures, ruptures, imprints of matter on matter have left traces inside and out which sometimes almost resemble writing and which actually do transcribe events from millions of years ago.” — Marguerite Yourcenar, Introduction to “The Writing of Stones” by Roger Caillois.

 

June Crespo (Pamplona, 1982) lives and works between Amsterdam and Bilbao. Recent group shows include: “Cosa y tú”, Carreras Múgica, Bilbao; “Amatista”, Sala Rekalde, Bilbao and “Reverse” programme Have A Window, Turin (2014). Group shows in 2014: “Wild Things”, The Green Parrot, Barcelona; “Eremuak. First Thought Best / Asmo Lehena Onena”. Artium. Vitoria-Gasteiz; “Retroalimentación 2014”. Sala de Arte Joven, Madrid; “Pareidolia”, Galería Bacelos, Madrid and “Hitting it off”, P-exclamation, curated by Rivet in New York. She partook in a residence in IASPIS, Stockholm, during 2014 and she is currently part of De Ateliers Programme in Amsterdam.