Anonymous Wallpaper multiple

In the Anonymous Wallpaper multiple, the uniqueness of ambrotypes and daguerreotypes, particularly portraiture, invited speculation that these examples might possibly be the only evidence that someone had ever existed. Remarkably, when studying the portraits, their subjects appear to be ‘us’. The anonymity of the sitters, in images baring no marks to identify who they were, seems diminishing. They are lost in time, but for a single known likeness. Through repetition of this single image and by creating tiled pattern, as could be matched in wallpaper, an irony developed: attention had been given to an individual otherwise forgotten. Options include seeing the result as pure design; making formal comparisons between one tile and another. But it also includes the possibility of studying the individual portrait; a tribute to their memory, and a reminder of who we are.

The Anonymous Wallpaper multiples are made using scanned original ambrotypes or daguerreotypes as a source, ending in digitally manipulated C-prints mounted between Plexiglas.

*page last updated May 7, 2008