Bleached Out with Curtis Mann
Apr 19, 2010

On Friday, March 12, while everyone else was scrambling around for shelter from the cold and rain, a small group of teens hunkered down at the Whitney for a workshop with Biennial artist Curtis Mann. It was the first of our teen drop-in programs this spring where we invite New York City teens and artists in this year's Biennial exhibition to come to the Museum for an afternoon of art-making and conversation.

The workshop with Curtis began in the Museum's galleries. Crowded around his piece, After the Dust, Second View (Beirut), Curtis talked about his artistic process. He searches for images on a photo-sharing website like Flickr, prints them out on photographic paper, and then manipulates them using a variety of materials, including bleach and a special varnish. 

Back downstairs in the workshop space (a mix between a laundromat and a photography lab), the teens put on aprons and gloves in preparation for some photographic manipulations of their own. Using the same materials as the artist, (with the exception of the varnish that was replaced with rubber cement), everyone experimented with different ways to alter photographs. We used bleach to change the color and images, rubber cement and tape to keep parts of the photographs intact, and sandpaper and X-acto knives to alter the texture of the photographs.

Delving a little deeper into process, Curtis explained that the bleach does not eat away at the color of the photographs like most people think it does. Instead, the bleach eats away at the surface of the photographic paper. The quickest way to stop this process is by continually rinsing the photograph in running water. Curtis and the teens also discussed the difference between using personal photographs from family albums (like Curtis did when he first began these projects) and pulling images from photo-sharing sites like Flickr.

After all the dipping, rinsing, and splashing was complete, everyone shared their work. We actually ended up with a very interesting range of styles and techniques, some of which Curtis promised to steal and debut at the Whitney in the very near future. After setting out the one-of-a-kind prints to dry, everyone took a look around the room and learned about each other's different artistic processes. The evening ended with pledges from everybody promising to try this project again at home, only not with mom's wedding pictures.

Check out some bleach-free pictures of the workshop with Curtis Mann on our Flickr page. And sign up for our next teen drop-in program with Biennial artist Ari Marcopoulos, on Thursday, March 25 at 5 pm.

By Diane Exavier, Assistant to Youth Programs