Jo Bradford (105)

Jo Bradford (United Kingdom)
Space Shuttle Mission: STS - 134
www.jobradford.com

I have been making an ongoing series of space themed work called Constructing Space, since 2004.

I make my art by combining two obscure techniques that are primarily photographic but utilise on painting and drawing practices as well, the resulting works are classed as Cliché Verre Photograms.

The art is made using meteorites. This cosmic material is placed in contact with light sensitive paper in a colour darkroom before colour exposures are made through glass plates onto which I have drawn and painted planets, moons or other celestial objects.

In the exposure process, various timed exposures of filtered coloured light change the colour of the paper. If exposed for long enough, the paper turns black. The areas where the stardust blocks the light remains white, thus the meteorites and stardust created the stars in my pictures.

Some of the work in the series “Constructing Space” was created using interstellar dust, meteorites and other cosmic material at the Natural History Museum in London, where I have been allowed on occasion to set up a darkroom in the basement of the museum, and am given access to the British National Meteorite Collection to work with.

I am based in Cornwall, UK, where I work full time at Green Island Studios, my studio and darkroom facility.