These images are made of overlaying the scans of polaroid emultion lifts overlayed over some offset montages of the watermen stairs on the Thames.
The offeset montages of the watermenstairs
I made these as a repsonse of the feedabak receved for teh Unit 1, and they ment to summarise the work made over the 1st year. Image were used as fisrt posts on our MA Instagram account.
Watermen's stairs were semipermanent structures that formed part of a complex transport network of public stairs, causeways and alleys in use from the 14th century to access the waters of the tidal River Thames in England. They were used by watermen, who taxied passengers across and along the river in London.
The Watermen Stairs on the Thames are inherently liminal spaces, bridging land and water. They are spaces of constant movement and erosion, shaped by the ebb and flow of the river. They are embodiing,instability and transformation, the Thames itself, with its perpetual currents and tides, underscores the continuing flux and impermansce
The polaroid emultions are very delicate and unstable, the edges torn easy. By placing the polaroids in the Thames water for over three weeks the dyes withing the emnaultions deacyed and tranbsform into these transluncent objects mirroring the fragility of materielaity, life and memory. This technique complements the idea of flux.
The process of overlaying Polaroid emulsion lifts and offset montages creates a visual language of transformation. This layered effect suggests an overlap of time, where moments in time and space are compressed into a single frame. This technique visually communicates the ephemeral nature of memory, experience, and physical structures, connecting to the impermanence of the Waterman Stairs, which are continuously shaped by tides, weather, and human activity.