Kerry Laitala’s camera-less, electro-photographic images lie at the direct intersection between science and superstition, belief and manifestation. Using an electrical generator, she exposes light-sensitive 4×5” film with the build-up of ions that creates a corona discharge on the surface of conductive objects. The light generated comes directly from electricity; the corona discharge creates the photographic impression. This body of work takes into consideration Walter Benjamin’s seminal essay, “The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction” with regard to the aura of objects. Laitala works directly with small metal objects such as souvenirs, charms, or other artifacts that have been made conductive with the application of metal paint. Working with this process is rather new to her practice, but she has been experimenting with it for over three years. She merges digital technologies with analog processes for greater control over the composition at all stages of its creation.
The photographs on display at Artists’ Television Access through December 4th include several works dialoguing with the 1915 Pan-Pacific International Exposition that transformed San Francisco’s Marina District one hundred years ago. Thanks to PPIE historians Laura Ackley and Donna Ewald Huggins for the use of archival images from the fair, and to the San Francisco Arts Commission for their funding of this project.
