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Chemical Paintings

“These chemically manipulated and camera-less abstractions completely transcended the traditional purposes of B&W photography paper; instead of showing us aspects of the recognisable world, the images--or should they be called paintings--depict flowing shapes and forms in shades of black and white communing with unnatural, chemically and sunlight induced muted colors. Each image was distinctive and while they bore no indexical relationship to anything encountered in the everyday world, they were certainly open for interpretation, stimulating the imagination and working on the unconscious--much like Rorschach inkblots do. They could be seen as primordial pools of amorphous substances, responding to light, evolving as if they were the building blocks of life-forming organisms. They also resembled a chorus of microscopic life, flattened between glass slides and magnified for viewing. Regardless of interpretation, these true abstract images mesmerize and confound the viewer, revealing more of their beauty through the process of relinquishing the need to identify what they depict.”

- Kane Stewart

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