Mitra
“Assuming all forms, golden hued, all knowing,
the final refuge, the one light, the giver of heat
so rises, the Sun, the thousand-rayed, existing in
a hundred ways, the breath of living beings.”
The Upanishads
The light rays of the Sun are created in the burning heart of the planet through a lengthy process of fusion. From birth in the center of the Sun, a photon, the active form of light, takes a minimum of 10,000 years to reach the surface of the earth from which the title of the project is derived.
The 10,000-year project focuses this potent sunlight on drawing, burning, and etching into the surface of black and white silver gelatin prints, transforming them into unique, one of a kind artworks. This alchemical process takes the Sun's intense light and light-sensitive materials to create a new expression made of paper, metallic silver, gelatin, and ash. Inspired by an analog technique, discussed initially in Leonardo Da Vinci's notebooks from 1475, the final pieces, called "Suryagrams," named after the Vedic god of the Sun, are at once ancient in texture and modern in expression.
10,000 Years, Mitra l, 15 7/8 x 15 7/8, 2021, inches, unique silver gelatin Suryagram
10,000 Years, Mitra V, 15 7/8 x 15 7/8 inches, unique silver gelatin Suryagram
10,000 Years, Mitra VI, 15 7/8 x 15 7/8 inches, unique silver gelatin Suryagram
10,000 Years, Mitra II, 15 7/8 x 15 7/8 inches, unique silver gelatin Suryagram
10,000 Years, Mitra IV, 15 7/8 x 15 7/8 inches, unique silver gelatin Suryagram
10,000 Years, Mitra III, 15 7/8 x 15 7/8 inches, unique silver gelatin Suryagram
10,000 Years, Mitra VII, 15 7/8 x 15 7/8 inches, unique silver gelatin Suryagram