First photograph of the solar spectrum, discoloured by time, with absorption spectrum , 2009

First photograph of the solar spectrum, discoloured by time and re-imagined as a core bore sample, 2009
sculpture, epoxy resin, 200 x 20 cm,
studio view of the artist

 

The perception of light and of the visible and the non-visible is a recurring concern in Bettina Samson’s work. At La Galerie she is showing a three-part series referencing the first photograph of the solar spectrum, taken by Edmoond Becquerel in 1848. Becquerel’s physicist son Henri is referred to, directly or indirectly, in a number of works in the exhibition.
Working from an image found on the internet, the artist set about a – necessarily skewed – recreation of the photograph in question. Digitally printed on transparent adhesive, First photograph of the solar spectrum, discoloured by time, with absorption spectrum is placed vertically on the glass of two windows in the main exhibition space, with natural light filtering through. Both space and viewer are bathed in a purplish light which simulates the ultraviolet rays making up the electromagnetic spectrum. Thus does the work make visible what cannot be perceived by the naked eye; and in two ways, in fact, since in order not to darken into invisibility, the first photograph of the solar spectrum – which was also the first colout photograph – had to be kept out of the light and out of sight for decades, until the necessary colour fixing technology cam along.
First photograph of the solar spectrum, discoloured by time and imagined as a core bore sample consists of a solid resin cylinder two meters long, cast in a lining pipe and shown horizontally as if it were a timeline frieze. Like a core bore sample taken in the ground or ice, it appears to indicate a succession of geological, genealogical strata, while at the same time suggesting notions of process and a return to origins rendered all the more hazy by distance or depth.

Text by Anne-Lou Vicente in “Bettina Samson”, La Galerie, Centre d’Art Contemporain, Noisy-le-Sec (exhibition 5 December 2009 – 13 February 2010).

Photography: Cedrick Eymenier.

 

 

 

© NETTIE HORN