Topographic Abstractions — Elizabeth Stone

Topographic
Abstractions: Oil and Land, Channeled Scablands & You Are Here

2019 – present

Landscape abstractions, molded, spattered, torn and reassembled

Series Statement

I use the chemigram process to create dimensional topographic abstractions on silver gelatin paper. This method sits on the sidelines of photography. It is a cameraless process, but unlike its cousin the photogram, the images are created in the light.

Different types of petroleum products are used to create the disturbances on the surface of the paper. I physically sculpt peaks and valleys, ravines and waterways with the paper and then surrender control in the process and allow the materials to take over and form their own living patterns. The movement of my hands shaping the paper is informed by decades of roaming and closely observing the Western landscape.

There are three projects in this series: You Are Here, Channeled Scablands and Oil and Land.

Oil and Land

2023 – present

For this project, I use motor oil and synthetic sprays to make irreversible marks on paper much like the permanent scars left on the landscape from our current extractive industries. Once dry, I rip the paper then reassemble the torn layers creating patterns suggesting geologic rock strata. The resulting constructed photographs reference our insatiable greed for resources while at the same time longing for beauty.

The Oil and Land project includes unique chemigram constructions presently in two sizes, 8” x 10” x 2” and 18” x 24” x 4”.

Channeled Scablands

2020

The Channeled Scablands grid consists of 264 three-inch square prints. Each print has been pressed, folded and sculpted by hand during the developing process to create dimensional relief and impressions in the paper.

The title of the work references the geologic phenomenon that occurred in southeastern Washington state all the way east to Montana. This area was scoured by over forty cataclysmic floods which created dry butte and basin topography.

The dimensions of the grid are 71” x 36” x 1”.