IRON POWDER LINE AFTERWARDS.

 2015-2018.

Photo documentation of 45 ephemeral drawings Iron powder on millimeter paper Iron powder sculpture in vitrine 50cm x 25cm x 25cm.

Description: A series of middle grey pure iron powder sculptures & ephemeral drawings.

A gray card is a middle gray reference, typically used together with a reflective light meter, as a way to produce consistent image exposure and/or color in film and photography. A gray card is a flat object of a neutral gray color that derives from a flat reflectance spectrum. A typical example is the Kodak R-27 set, which contains two 8×10“ cards and one 4×5“ card which have 18 % reflectance across the visible spectrum, and a white reverse side which has 90 % reflectance. Note that flat spectral reflectance is a stronger condition than simply appearing neutral; this flatness ensures that the card appears neutral under any illuminant (see metamerism).

How could I get a super matte surface? The answer was: mainly by avoiding any acrylic base or any sticky material that would easily become glossy and therefore reduce the matte aspect of the pure pigment. While experimenting how to solve the problem, I started to think of using magnetic stickers (like the ones you stick to your fridge). In practice, however, the magnetic sticker was not strong enough to attract the powder and failed at creating a really matte surface, thus the result made quite a poor impression. Hence, I decided to explore the potential of combining iron powder with magnets, and this search ended up with the creation of Gray Sculpture. Later on, I realized that this kind of gray is the color used for 3D modeling and digital images that try to represent, build or describe pure form.