ten thousand years
“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.
Raw, elemental, and deeply spiritual, the works are divided into various diverse bodies of work under the overall exploratory analog framework of 10,000 years; all are focused on the solar legacy and the unique process of creating. They are made utilizing both modern and vintage papers, along with the analog, unpredictable light of the Sun, and chemical interventions, to create a new form of imagery. Through this process, the actual silver halides of the photographic emulsions rise to the surface to chemically form actual metallic silver which is quite visible on the surfaces of the pieces. This silver combines with the ash and chemicals within the paper to also create gold, deep oxblood, yellow, blue, and orange lines and marks within the pieces as well.
Here are links to individual bodies of work under the Ten Thousand Years Project.
