Christine Dalenta
Chiaroscuro, Rectangles
2015
image and sheet: 10 7/8 x 8 3/8 inches (276 x 213 mm); mount: 19 5/8 x 15 5/8 inches (498 x 397 mm)
Photogram on ad-type paper
Purchased as the gift of Douglas Troob and Christopher Scholz.
2017.290
Courtesy of Christine Dalenta in collaboration with Benjamin Parker and JHB Gallery, New York. © Christine Dalenta and Benjamin Parker.
Inscriptions/Markings
Signed, titled, dated on verso.
Provenance
Acquired from Jayne H. Baum, 26 Grove Street Suite #4C, New York, NY 10014.
Catalog link
Century
Department
A photograph typically encourages viewers to look through it at the subject photographed, ignoring the physical qualities of the print. But in this cameraless work, photographic printing paper makes a subject of itself. In the darkroom, a mathematical expert in tesselation (the division of a plane into identical units or "tiles") systematically folded a sheet of printing paper. Dalenta then cast light on the sheet before unfolding and chemically developing it. The spiraling pattern of light and dark triangles shows which segments of the folded paper were concealed or exposed.