Blanqui’s Cosmology (1997-2007)
1997-2005
Blanqui's Cosmology exhibition, Trolley Gallery, London, 2007
B&W silver prints | Each: 16"x20"
Louis-Auguste Blanqui was a famous 19th-century political activist who was jailed innumerable times for his views. In one of his incarcerations he wrote a cosmology of revolution which forms the basis of the title of this work. This work consists of over 1200 portraits I took of men and some women with shaved heads over the past 10 years. This work investigates the early roots of a modern subject. The photos are long exposure photos and document a performance in which i draw on the head of my subjects with a pen light. What results is a work that concerns not only the beginning of photography, drawing with light, but also the history of portraiture, eugenics, phrenology, spirit photography, electricity, the unconscious, x-rays, astronomy photography and hysteria.