Negative Mass is an investigation of the relationships between science and art. Made with simple materials, it speaks to a poignant and layered issue we are confronted with on a global scale: the gradual melting of ice caps and glaciers in this age of climate change. 

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This work began its life on Takutai Square, where the fabric sheets you see here were treated with photographic chemicals to create a large-scale cyanotype. Creating a cyanotype relies on three basic things to produce an accurate analogous image: a light-sensitive surface, a light source and contact. Whatever stands or sits between the surface and light will create a negative form on the fabric – in this case, the patterns of water from the melting ice blocks that were placed on the sheets in Takutai Square, a memory of the solid objects that once were there. 

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Essay by Jessica Chubb published by Drain

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Exhibited: 

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2019 Negative Mass (solo show), commissioned by Britomart as part of the exhibition The Slipping Away: Art and the Ocean Deep at Gus Fisher Gallery. Atrium on  Takutai Square, Britomart, Auckland, 10 July – 7 September.

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