EXPLOSIONS

CHRISTIAN WEBER

There’s an old idiom:

‘Where there’s smoke, there’s fire.’

In this case, it doesn’t add up to an alarming situation, but an incredible display of imagery by California-based artist Christian Weber, whose series EXPLOSIONS is currently on display at the Southeast Museum of Photography.

The series is a result of patient endeavor, a partnership between Christian Weber and a team of pyrotechnicians who orchestrated the explosions, all of which safely took place within a rock quarry in Connecticut.

How was such an undertaking accomplished?

When combined, sulfur, charcoal, and saltpeter (potassium nitrate) become what is specifically known as "black powder," a mixture used in pyrotechnics due to its rapid combustion once ignited. Black powder lends itself to controlled experiments, because it's considered a “low explosive,” meaning its detonation velocity is less than about 100 yards per second. When heated, the sulfur ignites first, which then burns the charcoal fuel, raising the temperature to the point that it literally tears the nitrate molecules apart, releasing oxygen which aids the combustion. Potassium nitrate, sulfur, and carbon reacting together form nitrogen and carbon dioxide gases, heat energy, and potassium sulfide. The heat causes the gases to expand rapidly, producing an explosive force, propelling the action.

At a time when it’s hard to distinguish between original content and computer-generated imagery, when technology often supplants the human endeavor, it’s affirming to know that the artist played an essential role. Rather than relying on a sound or laser trigger, Weber personally depressed his camera’s shutter, the timing and capture of each scene determined by his hand.

The exhibition, which features 29 photographs–including 7 large-scale reproductions–reflects Weber’s preoccupation with what he refers to as the 'architecture of the explosion.’ His intent was to record the many formations of these intricate structures, from their overall design to the smallest of details. 

His hard work was rewarded, as his imagery reveals aspects of the blasts that would otherwise remain unnoticed. The human eye has limitations in how quickly it can process visual information–typically 30-60 frames per second–which effectively renders us blind to most of the ‘action’ in each of these explosions. In comparison, a high-speed camera set in a continuous shooting mode, with a shutter opening up to one-eight-thousandths of a second, can capture the ephemeral nature of each blast, revealing the details and minutiae present.

Weber photographs accomplish this task, and taken as a whole, there’s a steady build-up, an ever-increasing crescendo fueled by the range of colors, as well as stochastic patterns and shapes.

The gallery walls are seemingly alight with color and form, a sensory overload that ignites the imagination. 

The artwork itself is displayed in asymmetrical fashion, designed to mimic the randomness and unique patterning of the blasts themselves.  No two images are alike–some are spherical, a dynamic palette of bright hues spreading outwards across the frame, while others are amorphous, a chaotic blending of smoke, ember and flame.  The longer one takes to pause and contemplate each work, the more details emerge: fiery tendrils, hot sparks, vaporous plumes, billowing columns of smoke and flashes of light, the colors of which are determined by the inclusion of metal salts. 

In a number of the images, the viewer can glimpse parts of the equipment used in the “engineering” of the explosions: long boom poles with fuses used to safely ignite charges from a distance. This allows for precise timing and control over a single (or sequence) of explosions. 

Additionally, the exhibit features a large-scale vinyl reproduction of the poem “The View From Here,” written specifically for Christian Weber by author, poet and art critic John Yau. He personifies the imagery as his nimble words describe an alluring but untouchable subject. Part analogy–a passion inflamed, a momentary siege–and wholly confessional, the entity describes itself as paradoxical in nature, a force of contradictions. It is life and death, beauty and destruction. Full-bodied and all-consuming, yet so impermanent its history literally ‘written in smoke.’

Weber’s photographs are just as powerful as the exothermic reactions that created them.

– Christina Katsolis, Curator

Guided Tours Available Upon Request

About John Yau:

First published in 1975, Yau is the author of eighteen books and chapbooks of poetry, his most recent being Bijoux in the Dark (2018) from Letter Machine Editions. A fiction writer and art critic, he has also published four books of fiction, including Hawaiian Cowboys (1995) and My Heart is That Eternal Rose Tattoo (2001), along with numerous monographs and books of criticism.

He has previously received awards and fellowships from the Academy of American Poets, the Guggenheim Foundation, and the National Endowment for the Arts. He is Professor of Critical Studies at Mason Gross School of the Arts (Rutgers University) and lives in New York.