Liquidity On The Chair Exposures by Mella Travers

The exhibition comprises a set of portraits using Polaroid in a unique and innovative way to create two images from one original – one glass-mounted positive and another fibre-based black and white print.

‘Fluid, like life’; this unpredictable process introduces a new dimension to the traditional portrait. Starting with a square-format polaroid, the emulsion bends, twists, distorts and re-forms in a unique way as it lifts from the constraints of the original Polaroid film. Thus creating the first positive slide to create a negative print and then back to a positive print ‘allows it to peel its own layers back’, explains Travers.

The unexpected magic is that you can peer through the glass-mounted slides set against a light-box and on another wall the prints are hanging unframed as though drying in the original darkroom.

Each image is inimitable creating its own atmosphere and story. The only constant is the battered old chair against a garden wall. The subjects, the lighting, the different elements of the process, lend to create an unpredictable but beautifully compelling series of works.
www.mellatravers.com