A Painting Procedure Based on the Use of Superimposed Reversed Transparent Photographic Images and an Implication of the Procedure

Leonardo, Vol. 13, pp. 137-138. Pergamon Press 1980. Printed in Great Britain A PAINTING PROCEDURE BASED ON THE USE OF SUPERIMPOSED REVERSED TRANSPARENT PHOTOGRAPHIC IMAGES AND AN IMPLICATION OF THE PROCEDURE DavidZaig* 1. The idea of superimposing photographic images to produce another image came to me recently after I had made a 16mm cinema film in color entitled 'Work 1956-76'. The film had been made from a series of photographic slides of examples of my paintings, sculpture , photographs and pages of my writings made at different times and under different circumstances. I had two reasons for making the film. First, I wished to make a summarizing record of my work, which I thought would stimulate me to start afresh. Second, I intended that the film itself would be an artwork. After the film was made, I employed two identical copies of it to make a new film by superimposing the two copies face to face, so that the right edge of one ~ram~ of one copy coincided with the left edge of the identical frame in the other copy. Ineffect,pairs of reversed images were superimposed and the resulting images were recorded on the final film, frame by frame. Figure 1 shows an example of an image on one frame recorded on the film. I also varied the procedure by superimposing identical photographic slides, such that one was slightly shifted horizontally with respect to the other (so that the two were not in register) and recorded the image on another slide. I found that some images obtained by the two Fig. 1. Superimposed reversed images of a cinema-film frame, 1976. *Painter and sculptor, 269 Pearl Street, Cambridge, MA 02139, U.S.A. (Received 24 April 1979). 137 procedures were of sufficient interest to me t~ be re~ro­ duced as photographic prints or transformed mt.opam.tings . Figure 2(cf. color plate) is an example of an Image m the form of a slide made from a pair of superimposed (slightly shifted) reversed identical slides obtained from my painting entitled 'Feet' (Fig. 3). Figure 4 shows. a painting, entitled 'Totem', based on the Image shown m Fig. 2 (cf. color plate.) The painting obtained suggests.to me depicted masks, one above the other, much like sculpted heads on a totem pole. Although it is related to the original painting 'Feet' (Fig. 3), it is quite different in appearance. . The pictures made by Barbara Freeman WIthout a preconceived notion of their composition have ?een described in Leonardo [1]; although she employed slides, her procedure differs entirely from mine. I would also like to draw attention to a procedure for computer drawings used by Richard F. Voss, a physicist [2, 3]. He has produced, for example, a mountain scene based on a modification of Brownian noise. 2. I was led to the superimposition procedure by my interest in understanding better the way I usually make a painting, for example 'Feet' (Fig. 3). For such pain~in~s, I find.I depend on aesthetic judgements of a subjective, Fig. 3 'Feet', acrylic on canvas, 1.8 x 1.8m, 1974. Fig. 4. 'Totem', acrylic on canvas, 2.5 x 3.1 m, 1979. intuitive kind. When I use the superimposition procedure, I think I depend on much more objective, analytical aesthetic judgements in the step of selecting a particular example from a collection of superimposed photo138 David Zaig graphic images of some type of picture or of sculpture, because the subject matter and pictorial quality I see in it would be suitable for transformation into a painting. By objective here I imply that I believe that others would, in general, select the same particular example, although I have not made experiments to verify my belief. Although I believe that aesthetic judgements made while painting a picture in the usual way are subjective, I find the superimposition procedure useful in my work. It may be that it can be ofhelp to those who are searching for an objective understanding of aesthetic judgements. References 1. B. Freeman, Making Drawings and Lithographs without a Preconceived Notion of Their Composition, Leonardo 11, 122 (1978). 2. M. Gardner, White and Brown Music, Fractal Curves and...