London-based artist Nat Faulkner presented his first major UK institutional exhibition.
Spanning Camden Art Centre’s Central Space and Gallery 3, new works by the artist continue his engagement with the materials and processes of analogue photography, in which his studio – both ‘dark room’ and site of discovery – appears as a spectral presence and autonomous collaborator.
Derived from the Latin name for nitric acid, aqua fortis, the show’s title, Strong water, references the artist’s fascination with chemistry and transformation. Iodine – a light-sensitive element that played a key role in early photography – and light – the generative agent of all photography – take centre stage in the opening room of the exhibition. Bottled in bespoke vessels, an iodine solution transforms the space, bathing it in an orange-tinged hue as natural light filters through from the Victorian skylights above.`
A black-and-white multi-panel photograph taken at a scrap metal facility in Italy spans floor to ceiling in the adjoining room. Developed in the artist’s studio and embracing slippages and ‘errors’, the image makes visible the process itself, revealing traces of the fingers and tape used to hold the negative in place. Printed using an analogue silver gelatin process, (recycled) metal becomes both the subject and medium of the work.
Through another type of image making (or ‘image finding’ as the artist has referred to it) traces of the artist’s studio are again transported into the gallery using a frottage technique, transferring the texture of its walls onto thin sheets of copper through the process of rubbing. Electroplated with silver salvaged from the waste products of NHS X-ray labs, these rubbings will continue their transformation over the course of the exhibition as moisture in the air causes the metal to tarnish.
Composed of subtle, multilayered works, Strong water offers the opportunity to see a milestone exhibition by this early career already gaining significant attention. Through Faulkner’s embrace of alchemy and chance, its images emerge as if discovered – distilling and suspending fleeting moments of time and space.
