"Colour wheel" this image was one of my first explorations into aesthetics using ferrofluids and coloured ink. Using a circular magnet containing six smaller magnets of high strength placed incredibly close to the fluid, so close that the magnet and fluid are only seperated by the thin layer of plastic that is the petri-dish I use for my works, this stops the fluid forming the spires you will notice throughout the rest of my works and means that the ink injected into the fluid is almost pushed out of the areas being held by the excessive force yet is still held in place by thin layers of the fluid not under over-excessive pressure.
"Chemical formation 37" was an experiment with how light falls on the spires and capturing how the fluid reacts to the magnet without further fluids complicating the chemical formation and structure created by the ferrofluid, capturing the structure in its simplist aesthetic form
"Artistic eye No. 3" is a piece put together experimenting with heat, light (and subsiquently shadow), ferrofluid and inks. I noticed the clear eyeball like structure begin to form during my experiments and decided that with the right lights and shadow I could make the eyeball appear to gain eyelids and went about trying to make the eye seem to blink with a series I then named, the artistic eye due to its colourful iris and pupil.
"Artistic eye No. 2" this is another part of the artistic eye series part way through the blinking process except that the pupil seems to have not been fully formed yet and the iris appears to take on a more circular tie-dye effect unlike the bolder image of the eye in No. 3
"Chemical formation 48" is a piece where I was focusing more on the ferrofluid without the extra complications of introducing new liquids within the formations, however concentrating on the lighting I developed this image which reminds me of a photography dark room where, analogue images are developed into the final images we have grown accumstomed too, because of this to me the piece gains new meaning being a digital photograph pointing to its historic predecessor and the hard work that went into developing those images
"Chemical formation 83" is a piece that came from when i was cleaning the petri-dishes after experimenting with injecting the ferrofluid with colour while under the force of the magnetic field, I noticed that when I removed the magnetic field from the equation images began to form due to the speration of the oil from the ink and water however still leaving a very thin stain on the floor of the petri-dish. Noticing this I wanted illuminate the bubbles roaming through the dark black oil, so i set about playing with the light and distances and putting the fluids under magnetic forces then removing them and seeing what images came from this, producing images such as this one here that looks a bit like a ghost or Mike Wazowski from Monsters Inc.
"Chemical formation 61" is the result of experimentation with distance and strength of the magnet from the petri-dish
"Chemical formation 90" is the result of trying to overload the fluid with ink which allows this lovely semi-transparrent effect containing small circular droplets of the ferrofluid, however i was finding it incredibly difficult to photograph the resulting designs left within the fluids and keeping the colours due to the reflective nature of the liquid alongside its need for a well lit area due its inherently dark colour, which is why I have used the bright colours of yellow and red to try and bring the colours and patterns forward, to catch the eye, this is also why I used the textured yellow bowl in this image rather than the usual petri-dish. I think that all these elements however add to the aesthetic qualities of the image.
"Chemical formation 91" being the same actual formation as c.f 90 I was trying to get a better image of the patterns created by the ink inside the ferrofluid but it appears to highlight just how reflective the fluid is alongside the fact that there is a film created around the inks not just walls created and held between the inks, that the ferrofluid actually locks the inks in place when under the stress of the magnetic field. It also shows the central image that to me appears to be a grinning face surrounded by an intricate pattern pushing the feeling of life that has often been a feeling throughout the works.
"Chemical formation 110" is steming from the work with the fluids after it has been removed from the force of the magnet, this particular piece is developing on the feeling of creating life within a petri-dish, the cultivation of life however small being the main use of the humble petri-dish. However I have taken this feeling of cultivation a step further and have tried to create my own miniture cosmos inside the petri-dish mimicing the images in the media of our universe with its swirling colourful galaxies in the darkened outerspace lit up by thousands of stars, the feeling of life without ever actually showing life within itself.
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| Who's to know one of these galactic clusters doesnt actually hold life? |
