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| 300:1 (After Wilhelm Wagenfeld) © Simon Starling |
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| 300:1 (After Wilhelm Wagenfeld) © Simon Starling |
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| La Source (Demi Teinte) © Simon Starling |
Took some time out to visit the Simon Starling show at Tate St Ives last weekend. Could have been the work, but it could also have been a lot to do with the company and the wild winds and the deserted town and beaches, but for whatever reason, it was perfect.
Fell in love with the second room of works examining the Cornish chalk industry via a collection of prints, photographs, objects and films all linked by both material and context. But have put up here some images from two of Starling's projects that explore the half-tone. Could almost bring my graphics students here by way of a demonstration of how the half-tone works.
The top two images depict 300:1 (After Wilhelm Wagenfeld), this being the piece on show at Tate. Starling's taken half-tone archival photographs of glassware designed by Wagenfeld as a starting point (linking Modernist aesthetics back to the artistic history of St Ives). In punching each image through with a pin to place it on the wall, by dint of arrangement, he selects one dot that makes up the half-tone of the image. The blacker the tone of the image is, the larger the dot has to be to create this effect. This is then converted into a sculptural form by enlarging the dot by 300 percent and creating a hand-blown glass sphere at the correct size. Photos have a varying numbers of pins depending on their size, and therefore a varying number of spheres.
The bottom image shows what happens if you recreate a flat tonal image using a similar process.
I just wish I could explain it better - but I'm sleepy and it's time for bed.
