First discovered by Sir John Herschel in 1842, the cyanotype is a blue-and-white photographic print made without a camera. In a first book of photographs, The Pencil of Nature, fellow inventor William Henry Fox Talbot called such experimental prints “the new art of photogenic drawing” in which images made on photosensitive paper “are impressed by Nature’s hand.” A Show of Hands features printmaker Sally Chai’s latest collection of cyanotypes in various guises, from traditional Prussian blue impressions to more color-bending mixed-media renderings of the familiar and the abstract.
Visitors are invited to participate in A Show of Hands in two ways.
First, buy a print! Half of your chosen artwork’s purchase price will be donated to Earth Justice, a nonprofit devoted to environmental law in the public interest.
Second, show your hand! The gallery will feature two large blank pages to which you can add curiously shaped cut-outs of your own choosing. Then meet with us at 2pm on the Autumn Equinox, at which time—using the magic of sunlight and water—the formerly blank pages will be turned into curiously blue cyanotype prints.
ABOUT THE ARTIST:
Sally Chai is a writer, artist, and working member of the Iowa City Press Co-op. Her art practice uses a mix of drawing and printmaking techniques to create images on the subject of nature and the universe.