Out of the Blue

By Suzanne Révy

One of photography’s oldest methods of printing, the cyanotype, has been enjoying something of a renaissance over the past eight to ten years. We seem to be in the golden age of cyanotype, and artists have been expanding on the possibilities of this straightforward method to record light and shadow. Three artists based on Cape Cod, Midge Battelle, Rebecca Bruyn and Amy Heller offer dynamic visions of the technique in Out of the Blue currently on view at the Provincetown Art Association and Museum in Provincetown, MA through November 13th, 2022. 

“One Night” by Midge Battelle, courtesy of the artist and the Provincetown Art Association and Museum, Provincetown, MA.

“River” by Midge Battelle, courtesy of the artist and the Provincetown Art Association and Museum, Provincetown, MA.

“What the Selkie Knew” (left), “”Vespers” (top right), “Low Tide” (bottom right) and “Pilgrim” (far right) by Midge Battelle. (Installation photograph by Suzanne Révy)

Curated by Michelle Law, the exhibit presents a variety of prints and photographic sculptures. Midge Battelle might be described as employing the most familiar form with her photograms of flowers on a blue background, but her prints are filled with texture and tonal variation that make them anything but everyday. There is a nod to Anna Atkins, the nineteenth century botanist whose cyanotype studies of plants became the first book of photographs, but Battelle moves beyond definitions. She adds a “mix of spices, salt, vinegar, soap suds or plastic wrap to the traditional chemistry” which endows her prints, many presented without glazing, with a three dimensional quality and a sense of curiosity and play. The result is a series of images that engage the tension between abstraction and description, where, for example, the shape of a plant stalk mimics a river or a texture surrounding a flower appears to be a far away constellation and the detritus found at low tide become fractal patterns that Battelle disrupts by cutting then reassembling.

“112 Commercial Street, circa 1890” by Rebecca Bruyn, courtesy of the artist and the Provincetown Art Association and Museum, Provincetown, MA.

“Above the Rooftops n.d.” (top), “Looking Out, Looking In, n.d.” (middle) “Front Porch, n.d.” cyanotype collage boxes by Rebecca Bruyn. (Installation photograph by Suzanne Révy).

“659 Commercial Street, circa 1850” by Rebecca Bruyn, courtesy of the artist and the Provincetown Art Association and Museum, Provincetown, MA.

Rebecca Bruyn’s attention is on the manmade. During the pandemic, she took walks making pictures using her mobile phone, processing them through a variety of imaging tools, and creating large digital negatives for contact printing with cyanotype. Referencing the blue tones of architectural blueprints, the pictures feature historic homes along Commercial Street in Provincetown and function as a typology. Careful scrutiny reveals surprising details in windows such as a sculptural bust, a lamp, or reflections. A few of the facades resemble the human face where the upstairs windows are the eyes and a picket fence becomes a smile. In addition to the typology, Bruyn presents a sculptural collage of architectural details mounted to wooden boxes that add a welcome visual break. Each home has its personal history, which cannot be known from the pictures, but seeing them together as a series of images, this historic neighborhood with its walls, rooflines and yards, implies how broad histories are made up of so many lives lived within these residences.

“Large Forks” by Amy Heller, courtesy of the artist and the Provincetown Art Association and Museum, Provincetown, MA.

Cyanotype Egg series by Amy Heller. (Installation photograph by Suzanne Révy)

“Horseshoe vs. Skates” by Amy Heller, courtesy of the artist and the Provincetown Art Association and Museum, Provincetown, MA.

Amy Heller bridges the contrasts between Battelle and Bruyn. Equally interested in the manufactured and the natural, Heller’s forks, utensils, dolls and sculptural eggs adorned with images from classical art endow domestic details with the relevance of high art. Her illuminated scrolls installed on the opposite wall possess the reverential aura of stained glass windows in a church. Made on silk and mounted with LED lights, Heller employs a method (as does Battelle) wherein she exposes the iron salt chemistry while it is still wet on the surface. She places kelp, skate egg cases, appropriated imagery and a variety of sand or spices to add tonal depth to the surface, resulting in an alchemical dance of gestural wonder. And the verticality of the works bring an eastern meditative mood to the display.  There are so many expressive possibilities for this antique photographic practice invented by Sir John Hershel in 1842; it is gratifying to see how contemporary artists are allowing this medium to flourish during this golden age.  

LED mixed media cyanotypes on silk by Amy Heller at the Provincetown Art Association and Museum. (Installation photograph by Suzanne Révy)

For more information: https://paam.org/out-of-the-blue-cyanotypes-by-midge-battelle-rebecca-bruyn-and-amy-heller/