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Chemigram 20/3/92 'from La Suma of Jorge Luis Borges'

Photograph
1992 (made)
Artist/Maker
Pierre Cordier (artist)
Place of origin
Belgium (made)

Chemigram on photographic paper with letter forms which spell out Luis Borges' poem 'La Suma'.

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read Cameraless photography Cameraless techniques have been exploited and reinterpreted by successive generations of image makers and continue to be used by contemporary artists today. While related to the conventional practices of photography, cameraless images offer an alternative, experimental, radical and often r...

Object details

Category
Photographs
Object type
Photograph
TitleChemigram 20/3/92 'from La Suma of Jorge Luis Borges' (assigned by artist)
Materials and techniques
Chemigram on gelatin-silver photographic paper
Photography
Brief description
Photograph, chemigram on photographic paper, 'Chemigram 20/3/92 from ''La Suma of Jorge Luis Borges''', Pierre Cordier, Belgium, 1992.
Physical description
Chemigram on photographic paper with letter forms which spell out Luis Borges' poem 'La Suma'.
Dimensions
  • Height: 53cm
  • Width: 61cm
Gallery label
Cameraless Photography

Pierre Cordier (b.1933)
Chemigram 20/3/92 'from La Suma of Jorge Luis Borges'
1992
Chemigram on gelatin silver paper
53 x 61 cm
Given by the artist
Museum no. E.859-2010

Cordier’s fondness for labyrinthine patterns, this time in the form of words, is shown in these works that reference the Argentinian writer, poet and philosopher Jorge Luis Borges. They are composed of letter forms that spell out Borges’s poem La Suma. The letters, however, are almost impossible to decipher, their shapes joining together as paths forking in different directions
(06 03 2014)
Gallery 100 ‘A History of Photography’, 2014-2015, label text:

Pierre Cordier (1933–)
‘Chemigram 20/3/9 from “La Suma” of Jorge Luis Borges’
1992

Cordier discovered the ‘chemigram’ process in 1956. After varnishing photographic paper he makes marks in the surface. Dipping the paper into photographic chemicals creates dark and light tones and colours. This piece references the writer Borges. Letter forms spell out his poem ‘La Suma’, but they become impossible to decipher as their shapes join to create a labyrinth.

Chemigram on gelatin silver paper
Museum no. E.859-2010
Credit line
Purchased with the support of HH Sheikh Saud bin Mohamad bin Ali Al-Thani and Basil Hyman
Collection
Prints, Drawings & Paintings Collection
Accession number
E.859-2010

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Record createdJuly 12, 2011
Record URL
https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O1226475/chemigram-20392-from-la-suma-photograph-pierre-cordier/
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