We tied ourselves to the mast, and set sail
2007
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all works © Lisa Peachey 2015
Silver leaf, lightbox, boiler suits
Variable dimensions
This work is about the mythology of the process of image making.
The physical elements of making a photograph – silver, light and water are represented. A lightbox was covered in silver leaf and then an image of the sea was scratched/etched into it so the light bled through. But with the notion of the romanticism of the artist in mind, particularly the story of Turner supposedly tying himself to the mast to paint a painting (this ship never existed), the role of the artist within the voyage of creating work was also implicated, with the silver moving from the drawing to artists’ overalls, so they in turn become like a silver space suit. Another plain suit hangs next to it - the journey is not the artists’ alone.
Silver is used quite often in the work in various forms, for many symbolic reasons – its inherent value a a precious metal, its value in the traditional photographic process, it’s healing properties…
but central to the work is the durational physical and emotional contact of the artist with the work, both romantically posited, and slightly undermined (the drawing includes droplets on a lens),
