Marco Breuer: Tremors, Ephemera

Marco Breuer: Tremors, Ephemera documents two groundbreaking projects by Marco Breuer. Tremors consists of Icamera-less pictures:' working in the darkroom, Breuer employs an assortment of household tools--a hot plate or an electric pan, for example--and moves them with varying degrees of pressure across photographic paper, registering their movement as an irregular, seismographic trace. The paper responds to the heat from the tool by recording a latent image, which, once developed, turns the emulsion a range of colors from deep umber to burnt sienna and charcoal black. In Ephemera, Breuer goes one step further in relinquishing his commitment to a particular medium and literally attacks standard drawing paper, using the format of generically designed handmade books. The pages document direct activities taking place deep within the book cavity--an ignited fuse creeps through the book gutter, leaving a snake-like trail, fanning out in a smudge of brown smoke; an electric shock mars the heart of a centerfold in an explosive display of colorful splashes.