INTERFERENTIAL STILL LIFE
Rebirth of the Lippmann Plate
Andrea Salvà
Exhibition curated by Carla Cardinaletti
Taking up Gabriel Lippmann’s interferential color photography, the artist Andrea Salvà applies contemporary scientific knowledge of nanotechnology to a cutting-edge chemical laboratory, where he standardizes the plate-making process, so as to reproduce images with unrivalled fidelity in his highly professional photographic studio.
The advanced interferential system engineered by the artist between chemistry and physics handles light, reproducing the iridescent phenomenon present in nature in the form of soap bubbles, in seashell nacre, and “blue” butterflies. Being unique pieces that cannot be reproduced, Salvà’s Still Lives draw on the intimacy of our homes, our drawers, our memories: Vivid in their colors, they almost appear three-dimensional thanks to the highly detailed definition. As a counterpoint to the extraordinary technique, the artist’s poetics includes these objects of our everyday life. Using the view camera, which allows total focus, Salvà impresses and then develops fragments telling the stories of our lives.
Therefore, in the solitary vision, we can see a calculator, a book, a vintage camera, and a sequence of commonly used drugs, all of which are portrayed according to the stylistic features of advertising photography. For example, the phenomenology of the image Aulin, which appears and disappears shining, exposes the posology of our everyday life, poised between an extraordinary technique and ordinary subjects. Salvà’s Lippmann plates give the elusive glow of the universe to our household objects.
Rebirth of the Lippmann Plate
Andrea Salvà
Exhibition curated by Carla Cardinaletti
Taking up Gabriel Lippmann’s interferential color photography, the artist Andrea Salvà applies contemporary scientific knowledge of nanotechnology to a cutting-edge chemical laboratory, where he standardizes the plate-making process, so as to reproduce images with unrivalled fidelity in his highly professional photographic studio.
The advanced interferential system engineered by the artist between chemistry and physics handles light, reproducing the iridescent phenomenon present in nature in the form of soap bubbles, in seashell nacre, and “blue” butterflies. Being unique pieces that cannot be reproduced, Salvà’s Still Lives draw on the intimacy of our homes, our drawers, our memories: Vivid in their colors, they almost appear three-dimensional thanks to the highly detailed definition. As a counterpoint to the extraordinary technique, the artist’s poetics includes these objects of our everyday life. Using the view camera, which allows total focus, Salvà impresses and then develops fragments telling the stories of our lives.
Therefore, in the solitary vision, we can see a calculator, a book, a vintage camera, and a sequence of commonly used drugs, all of which are portrayed according to the stylistic features of advertising photography. For example, the phenomenology of the image Aulin, which appears and disappears shining, exposes the posology of our everyday life, poised between an extraordinary technique and ordinary subjects. Salvà’s Lippmann plates give the elusive glow of the universe to our household objects.
