elin o’Hara slavick, “Hair Comb, 3 Views”. Cyanotype.
A professor of Visual Art at the University of North Carolina: elin oO’Hara slavick is both an artist and a philosopher. The focus of her most recent exhibit, Seventy Year Old Shadows of Hiroshima, showing at Cohen Gallery, L.A., are the series of everyday objects the artist photographed in Hiroshima, objects that had been effected by the dropping of the A-bomb in 1945. The exhibit consists of cyanotypes of these images – a cyan blue print that has special light sensitivity, which slavick uses to great effect, imbuing these commonplace artificats with a sense of sadness and elation, an awareness of the tragic and spiritual.
“The A-bombed artifacts from the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum archive that houses over 90,000 objects are often deformed – glass bottles melted into molten orbs or wavy translucency, metal things burned into unrecognizable abstract shapes,” says slavick.
“I hope that these objects evoke the magnitude of all that was lost / is lost in war: people, communities, livelihoods, families, culture and material history.”
elin o’Hara slavick, “Combusted Bottle”. Cyanotype.
There are two different kinds of cyanotype paper used in the show: earlier works on pre-coated, store-bought cyanotype paper, and later works on slavick’s handmade cyanotype paper. Her preference is for the latter, which slavick describes as showing, “visible paint strokes, edges illuminating white, pools of deeper darker blues and the uneven human aesthetic of the handmade.”
“I often cried as the images appeared in the tub of water as I rinsed the chemistry away,” says slavick. “The white shadows are like ghosts, objects rendered invisible yet present.
elin o’Hara slavick, “Pale Ladder”. Cyanotype.
“The very real rusty and fragile objects that survived such an intense heat and wind, stored in archival tissue paper and containers, tagged, photographed, treasured as evidence and silent witnesses, appear as something else than what they actually are. This is the power of art, of visual representation and transformation.”
The pieces in this show are ghostly in nature, while at the same time revealing the distinct technical elements that appear in each print. Every object has its own shape and purpose, and carries with it varying degrees of light. Take for example the cyanotypes of ladders, which appear as if they are rising to heaven.
“The ghostlike appearance of these images is in direct relationship to the shadows left behind of ladders, plants and people– yes, people–on buildings and roads from the intense flash of the A-bomb,” says slavick.
“Yes, the ladder is truly unique for several reasons,” continues slavick. “In 2011 I was determined to and made a cyanotype on my hand-coated paper of a Japanese ladder in Hiroshima. While it is not a ladder in the Peace Museum archive (as no ladders survived the A-bomb or have been donated), it is distinctly Japanese.”
In its implicit remembrance of the tragedies of war, of what was lost and what remains, Seventy-Year-Old Shadows of Hiroshima stands as an artist’s statement on war and peace. “I have always been and am still against every war,” says slavick.
“Artists who address ugly and difficult subject matter must figure out ways to seduce the viewer, to hold their attention and shift their perspective. Beauty is one way and in this case, I think highly effective.”
