(Copy) 80. The Schwarze Mönch is a journey that began with an encounter with some glass plates from the late 1880’s, which were left, forgotten, wrapped in newspaper in a cardboard box in a school’s darkroom.
They consisted of a mix of magic lantern slides of evocative views of Swiss Alps by Victorian photographer Graystone Bird (1862-1943), and a box of glass negatives by an anonymous photographer depicting people in rural English towns and countryside scenery.
As I studied them using the enlarger in the darkroom, I began to notice more traces of time on the surfaces of the plates. Travelling in and out of the glass, tracing fingerprints, being on a mountainside in Switzerland, through layers of mould and dust, I became interested in these plates as objects.
Moving the workspace from the darkroom to the local library’s photocopier, the journey to find the story of these objects continued. Eventually the journey itself became the subject. New landscapes emerged as the process of photocopying, enlarging and re-photographing the prints continued, collecting new marks as the result of mechanical imperfections in the photocopier, dust, or creases and folds on the printed surfaces.
Tracing the marks left on the surfaces and delving into the images themselves, the book travels through emerging landscapes, eventually reaching a strange plateau where the artist finds herself reiterating the processes of the original photographers.
Like the glass plates originally encountered, (Copy) 80. The Schwarze Mönch is an active vessel which carries time, memory and unique projections, continuing to accumulate new traces as it is handled by the viewer.
(Copy) 80. The Schwarze Mönch
Sayako Sugawara
A photocopied book in a slipcase including a card with signature and edition number
Edition of 15
Book : 34 pages , approx. 23.8 cm x 33.7 cm x 0.7 cm, perfect bound, Redeem 130gsm / 315gsm
Slipcase : 24 cm x 34 cm x 0.9 cm, Cairn Multiboard - Grey/White 350gsm
Printed, bound and signed by the artist
2021
Photography and Video on this page by James Newton