Decontamination

REALISATION

(07/26)

Decontamination

Produced as a photo print on aluminium Dibond, 45 x 30 cm, with a 6 mm ‘Basel’ frame in white maple

RULEBOOK

(06/26)

The 18 images in the decontamination series were processed using the ‘Enlarge Bright Areas’ filter with a radius of 17.7 pixels and the ‘Preserve Roundness’ option. The brightness was then set to the maximum and the contrast to -20% (approximately). The portrait photograph was subsequently placed at the very bottom of the file, with the 18 decontamination images layered on top of it. These were arranged manually. The bottom image was given 27% opacity, the top one 3%; the opacity values were reduced alternately by 2% and 1%.

The finished image was saved digitally as a JPG with dimensions of 6000 × 4000 pixels.

CONCEPT

(06/26)
Using the image-merging technique developed for the holiday photo series, a colour photograph of the parents is overlaid with selected photos from the decontamination series, so that the parents are now only visible as a faint silhouette. This reflects the reality that, whilst one can come to terms with experiences, it is not really possible to forget them. At least not if one wants to.

IDEA

(09/20)
In autumn 2020, we, the sons of the family, cleared out our parents’ house. In the process, we learnt a great deal of unpleasant things about the family. Images formed in our minds. Memories were confirmed, reworked and created in the light of these new insights. The final stage of the work involved hiring a clearance company to leave the entire rented semi-detached house in a ‘broom-clean’ condition and dispose of everything. Once this was done, I photographed the empty rooms of the house and emailed the pictures to my brother with the subject line ‘Decontamination Images’. That’s how the idea arose to create a work of art based on them.

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