Dance is the starting point of this work. When I started working with chemigrams what really interested me was the way movement, my movement, could interfere with the final work and mark it permanently. So I decided to explore the way dance guided my work.
For this I chose some records that are essential to me and one by one I listened to them and let the music guide my movements. I’ve always got different results but I was never really satisfied with them, until I listened to The Inheritors by James Holden, and that was when I got what I was really looking for, without knowing it beforehand.
This work was the result of many nights inside the darkroom listening to The Inheritors in repeat, almost in a state of trance, manipulating the materials (chemicals, paper and light), counting with a fair share of unpredictability, trying to create a physical corespondent to the sound. This trance induced state was essential for me, this process made me feel that the images had gained a new dimension, sound. So, I believe that this work cannot be a solely visual experience, the viewing of the chemigrams is enhanced by the record.
This is a very personal understanding of the work and so I believe that, in order for the viewer to experience what I have the work would benefit from being shown in a room here The Inheritors were playing.
Maria Salgado
