Now and Then
Alexandra Clod
Photo collage
2024
The copper extraction exhausted the landscape
These photographs were taken in June 2024 in Cyprus, and depict the landscapes in the Lefke and Skouriotissa mines, the areas left after copper mining, and the olive gardens on the way there. Next to them are the archival photographs from the Picture Book of Cyprus, 1950s, depicting almost the same areas of Cyprus as in my photographs. You can see how copper extraction exhausted the landscape. Still, at the same time, where the olive trees were growing, there are still olive trees.
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I love to work with the subject of destruction in my art practice, applying damage to my own oeuvre, manipulating my negatives or prints but having no control on the final result. This way of symbolic expression seems appropriate to me, while speaking of such things as colonialism, war and exploitation of nature.
As you can see in these photos, there are almost no trees or plants in the former copper extraction areas. I collected some copper dust in Lefke and applied it to soak my film photographs of these dried out, exhausted post-mining landscapes. You can see the different results of how this ‘copper soup’ affected the images. I have experimented with the length of time soaking the prints, with the photo paper qualities, and, to compare, I also partly used the copper sulphate brought from Ukraine. I was also lucky to get an old Turkish Cypriot magazine and find black and white photos of the same areas in the 1950s, so I put them on the board to give a visual understanding of changes.
Interesting, that olive trees are still growing, but definitely not where the copper mining was going on.
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Two weird observations I have in addition to this experiment:
1) the copper dust which I collected with my bare hands, has stayed under my fingernails for five days, and with time becoming more and more red
2) the higher the quality of printing (like inkjet), the more and faster it is destroyed, and vice versa.
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