Out of the Blue 

Interrogating the brain

<strong>Out of the Blue</strong>, installation of 18 cyanotypes, Susan Aldworth, 177 x 282 cms, 2020.

Cyanotype is an antique photographic printing process, discovered in 1842 that creates a cyan blue silhouette when an object is placed on a reactive surface and develops in ultraviolet light – a blueprint. For Out of the Blue I used the cyanotype process to make prints to mirror the use of light in the optogenetic therapies being developed by the scientists for the CANDO project. These prints explore, through pattern, the synchronization that develops in the brain during the build up to an epileptic episode. After experimenting with different papers, I fixed on Tosa Washi 28 gram Japanese paper which produced a wonderful Prussian blue when exposed to garden sunlight. The lightweight paper was  translucent, and meant I could ‘float’ hang the work as a block, unframed for the exhibition. The installation of all 18 cyanotypes was first shown in Illuminating the Self at Vane, in Newcastle, January 2020.

After experimenting with different papers, I fixed on a thin Japanese paper which produced a wonderful Prussian blue when exposed to garden sunlight.

<strong>Out of the Blue 1</strong>, Susan Aldworth, cyanotype, 59 x 47 cms, 2019. Photograph by Peter Abrahams. <strong>Out of the Blue 2</strong>, Susan Aldworth, cyanotype, 59 x 47 cms, 2019. Photograph by Peter Abrahams. <strong>Out of the Blue 3</strong>, Susan Aldworth, cyanotype, 59 x 47 cms, 2019. Photograph by Peter Abrahams. <strong>Out of the Blue 4</strong>, Susan Aldworth, cyanotype, 59 x 47 cms, 2019. Photograph by Peter Abrahams. <strong>Out of the Blue 5</strong>, Susan Aldworth, cyanotype, 59 x 47 cms, 2019. Photograph by Peter Abrahams. <strong>Out of the Blue 6</strong>, Susan Aldworth, cyanotype, 59 x 47 cms, 2019. Photograph by Peter Abrahams. <strong>Out of the Blue 10</strong>, Susan Aldworth, cyanotype, 59 x 47 cms, 2019. Photograph by Peter Abrahams. <strong>Out of the Blue 11</strong>, Susan Aldworth, cyanotype, 59 x 47 cms, 2019. Photograph by Peter Abrahams. <strong>Out of the Blue 12</strong>, Susan Aldworth, cyanotype, 59 x 47 cms, 2019. Photograph by Peter Abrahams.

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