How does an artist come to grips with the uncontrollable? Filmed over the course of four years, artist Mariah Roberston experiments with photographic chemistry in her Brooklyn darkroom, leading to a striking series of colorful cameraless abstractions. Confronted with a roll of paper that was accidentally exposed, Robertson begins to play with the ruined paper, saying “I always enjoy trying to make something out of the unwanted thing and go deeper into the disaster.” Robertson experiments with developer, fixer, and water at various concentrations and temperatures, creating vibrant images that appear to have optical or painterly effects but instead are the result of arrested chemical reactions.
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