THE STORY BEHIND THE WORK
By Michael O'Sullivan
Soledad Salamé’s contribution to “Corridor” is a suite of 12 photographs silkscreened on Mylar. Called “Gulf Distortions,” they’re images the Baltimore artist shot in the Venice and Grand Isle areas of Louisiana after the Deepwater Horizon blowout. They have a funny look, as though they’re being viewed on a staticky old TV.
The degradation of the images — which echoes that of the environment they depict — comes from the artist faxing the photographs to herself, which ends up pixelating the content. The shimmer comes not from the Mylar but from something called “interference pigment,” a high-tech ink that lends the surface a pearlescent luster.
They shimmer prettily, like an oil slick, even as they seem to fall apart.