Michael Part

For his first solo exhibition, Michael Part seemed to create a mirage of artistic media. The works – all Untitled (all 2011) – initially appeared as a series of brooding abstract canvases. A few moments of acclimation in the gallery lighting conditions intimated their density; upon closer inspection, the ‘canvases’ turned out to be copper and brass panels. Yet ultimately, these works remain closely linked to analogue photography through their production process.

Part soaked the metal panels in the same fixative solution used to make traditional silver gelatin prints – a photographic processing method that emerged in the 1880s and was pushed aside by commercial colour in the 1960s. The compact size of the panels recalls the standard 24×30 cm measurement for paper photographic enlargements and thus a most recent chapter in the medium’s disappearing past. Yet by using copper and brass panels instead of photographic paper as supports, Part took on the role of the alchemist and managed to conjure up a wealth of associations, from the economic to the art historical. His basic materials – copper, brass, silver – are representative of not only industry but also commodities trading. Dunking the panels in silver fluid produces gradient surface distortions, congealed splotches and peculiar encrustations as well as colours ranging from deep violet to charcoal grey. The panels were reminiscent of Andy Warhol’s ‘Oxidation’ series (1977–78) and ‘Diamond Dust Shadow’ series (1979) while their weighty grace recalled Richard Serra’s Corner Prop (1976), if not the weathered corners of Serra’s many outdoor sculptures. Through his materials and processes, Part revived mediaeval chemistry, industrialization and the post-industrial analogue world now being swept away by digitization. The rapid rise of digitization may explain why younger artists like Part embrace outdated technologies, although he evoked several centuries of obsolescence.

To contrast the blunt physicality of the panels, the artist closed off and darkened the gallery’s middle room to screen Untitled: a silver gelatin slide projection, albeit operated by a digital remote control. The carousel of images features rugged scenes from the great outdoors (brooks, gorges, boulders), yet the rotating succession of rocks seemed closer to the detached documentation of a scientific survey than to romanticist yearning – perhaps because these are the very places where precious metals reside and must be extracted. The projection brought the panel works full circle – back to their origins, in a way – while suggesting that the latent imagery brought to life by the silvery abstractions in gelatin prints is a phenomenon of nature.

Ultimately, nature becomes an ongoing collaborator in this body of work, from the start to a never-ending finish. The way that Part utilized silver to draw-forth his own abstract images on the copper and brass panels is temperamental. With each passing month, an imperceptible shift occurs in

the panel surfaces; as in Brownian motion, there is the continuous random drifting of the mutating silver particles. This movement suggests a quiet take on process art: All of the materials are visible, but their combined effects remain mercurial.