Photographers, sculptors, interdisciplinary artists and those interested in challenging the traditional boundaries of photographic practice through the creation experimental photo–based are encouraged to attend this workshop.
Instructor Miles Collyer will deliver an in-depth lesson on incorporating photographic imagery with commercial UV-printing methods and experimental thermoforming processes. Conjoining photographic and material components, participants will arrive at new deconstructed forms and strategies for the presentation of photographic work.
As a starting point, the two-dimensional image is taken up as a challenge. The image plane is manipulated to achieve a perceptual shift in the viewer’s experience of the photographic print; overthrowing boundaries between photography and sculpture. Although brought into the sculptural realm, the new forms retain a “photographic status” by maintaining the photographic impulse to fix subjects in time.
Hung, lifted, draped, slung, rolled, turned, grabbed, dropped, folded, pinched, cascading, enveloping, discarded, strewn.
The results from the act of doing.
Participants are encouraged to email one digital photographic image (no larger than 11"x17") in order for UV-cured prints to made in advance of the workshop. A clear thermoplastic, PETG, commonly used for vacuum-formed product packaging, acts as the substrate. It is recommended that abstract photographs, flat-bed scans of materials, or images which focus on material textures (i.e. fabric, paper, rock etc) are those provided.
Following an overview presentation of contemporary photo-based sculptural practices, workshop participants will have the opportunity to create an experimental photo–based form using their supplied images.
Miles Collyer (b. Toronto, 1983) is a visual artist who works with images and sculptural materials. His work commonly examines socio-political matters and references visual sources located in the media. Most recently he explores specific materials, forms and surfaces and their potential to resonate the condition of contemporary conflict.
Collyer’s work has been published and exhibited across Canada. Solo exhibitions in 2016 include Rumble, Paul Petro Contemporary Art (Toronto) and how do you surrender to a drone?, YYZ Artists’ Outlet (Toronto). Select group exhibitions include the Art Gallery of Western Australia (Perth); Australian Centre for Photography (Sydney); Open Space (Victoria); and the Art Gallery of York University (Toronto).
