FIRST LIGHT
Leeds Art University
03 November - 15 December 2017

First Light: Definitions

1. The first use of a telescope to take an astronomical image after it has been constructed.

2. The light emitted from the first generation of hyper-stars, formed less than a billion years after the Big Bang.

3. The time when light first appears over the horizon in the morning; dawn.

About

First Light is an exhibition of photographs and prints by London based artist Melanie King. Her practice-based research is concerned with the representation of celestial objects, considering how materiality can affect our reading of an image.

This body of work was originally inspired by the Envisioning the Universe seminar at the National Maritime Museum (2013) convened by Dr Marek Kukula. At this seminar, Elizabeth Kessler explained how images from the Hubble Telescope are mediated before being published. Colours, crops and contrasts are added with sophisticated digital imaging techniques to communicate important features of galaxies and nebulae, such as chemical composition or structures of gas clouds. These images are neither objective nor subjective – curiously they sit somewhere in-between.

Through the production of these artworks, King reconsiders how astronomical objects can be represented within contemporary art practice. Overall, she aims to understand the phenomena of astronomy (‘star-arranging’) in a tangible, material way.

Techniques and Materials

Daguerreotypes

The relationship between photography and perception are explored with King’s becquerel daguerreotypes, made using silver plates which become sensitive to light following the application of iodine gas. A negative is placed on top of the sensitised silver plate, and is then developed using strong sunlight before being fixed in a darkened room. The resultant images seem to appear and disappear as you walk around the gallery.

Meteotypes

King’s meteotypes are photographic etching prints created with meteorite imbued ink. King worked with Barry J. Coles at the Royal School of Mines to mill the meteorites into fine dust, before mixing with carbon black ink. With the meteotypes project, the artist is interested in how ink forming the image is imbued with the very same material that it represents in the photograph. Additionally, King is fascinated by the fact that this very meteorite material has travelled for millions of years through the void of space before colliding with Earth.

Meteorites

Alongside the meteorite prints, genuine meteorite fragments are displayed. These are etched slices of meteorite.

Antique Stereo-Viewer

King has reprinted Henry Drapers stereoscopic photograph of the moon thus allowing us to imagine we are viewing the moon in three dimensions.

Silver Gelatin Moon

The silver gelatin moon image is a result from ongoing collaborative analogue photography experiments with Theo Schlicter, utilising the Fry telescope at the UCLO observatory in Mill Hill, London.

Ancient Light

The silver gelatin star field images are analogue photographs, exploring how light from incredibly distant stars can be captured directly onto photosensitive film.

Photogravure

King began by working with NASA photographs, printing them using the nineteenth century technique of photogravure. The photogravure is created by making an etching plate with a negative, followed by the application of ultraviolet light to make an etching plate. To print using the plate, King used carbon black ink where materials have been burned to produce the ink. When pressed onto fine Hahnemuhle paper, the black ink takes on a dense but sultry texture which feels appropriate to represent the cold and dark void of space.

Pulsar Oscillograph

In developing this work, King created a room-sized deconstructed oscillograph installation to visualise pulsar stars that exist beyond the visible light spectrum. Pulsar audio intepretations (created by artist Steve Aishman) were played through a speaker. A laser was pointed at a mirror on the speaker, which then projected harmonographic drawings onto photosensitive paper in a darkroom.

Cyanotype

The artist further explores the interaction between celestial objects and photosensitive materials, through the use of the cyanotype process. A cyanotype print is created when two iron based salts are mixed together and become sensitive to ultraviolet light from the Sun. Here, the cyanotype process has been used to print NASA images of the Earth (Pale Blue Dot) and King’s own photographs of the stars, taken close to Kielder Observatory in Northumberland Dark Sky Park.

Lenticular

Similarly, the Pillars of Creation lenticular print highlights the difference between the black and white raw mechanical image and the full colour mediated image which we are used to seeing. Pillars of Creationis a photograph taken by the Hubble Telescope of interstellar gas and dust within the Eagle Nebula. The gas and dust are in the process of creating new stars, yet are also being destroyed by stars which exist nearby. These images were originally created by Zolt Levay, the Imaging Group Lead at the Space Telescope Science Institute. By presenting the Pillars of Creation as a lenticular print, King purposefully encourages the viewer to look beyond the image constructed for public outreach purposes.

All images: Hamish Irvine