The wet-plate collodion method of photography was
first introduced in the 1850s as a raw and wondrous revelation.
On a clear glass plate, a brew of chemicals
(gun cotton, ether, silver nitrates) allowed for an image
to bloom to life. Light was suddenly given substance
and our perception of the world changed.
In “Alchemy and Other Allusions”
artist-provocateurs Robert Kenney and Stacey Dallyn
use this elemental medium to meaningful effect.
Each artwork consists of one or more of the
fragile plates, with the images appearing
in a ghostly pool of silvered light
as if spectral visions from some distant past
told in a modern voice. The work is smartly stylish
but the broken beauty of each piece
remains resonant as if a haunted dream that,
once imagined, you can never forget.
For Kenney and Dallyn this first collection is
a potent concoction of charms and fables
and iconic renderings of legendary warriors – all female.
In these parables of light, a slow and silent
seduction occurs – a lure leading us back to some
essential truth about the beauty and value
of being alive.
