Michael Part
Michael Part
The starting point of the work is a 30x9cm strip of silver gelatine coated film of the sort usually used in the field of scientific photograph.
In a series of darkroom experiments carried out strictly according to the instructions for using such film, the artist dissolved the protective layer in water, exposing the film during the process. The resulting photogram records what is seen before a film of this type is developed into a photograph.
The enlargement of this unique work to the scale of the artstripe reveals not only the entire opulence of this photographic moment, but delivers, at the same time, an image of the very act of transformation as a means of portraying the process which is, after all, the very focus of activities in the room.
The Vienna-born artist studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in his home city and at the Städelschule in Frankfurt.
In his work, Michael Part seeks to be inspired by – without imitating - the largely long-forgotten experiments of the pioneers of photography. Among the results of this search are the photograms which emerge not from a camera but from the events in the darkroom.
After numerous group exhibitions and collaborations with other artists, Michael Part’s first one-man show was staged at Vienna’s Andreas Huber Gallery in Winter 2011/12.
