CORY REYNOLDS | DATE 6/19/2018

The photograph as source of unlocked potential in 'Shape of Light'

Maya Rochat's "Meta Love" (2018) is reproduced from Shape of Light: 100 Years of Photography and Abstract Art, co-published by D.A.P. and Tate. Essayist Emma Lewis describes Rochat's process: "She begins each site-specific work with her own photographs—lately of rock or crystal formations, water and so forth—which she then subjects to extreme manipulation: spattering and spraying with substances like soap, bleach, glue or paint, on a surface or support that might be paper, or aluminum, or an overhead projector slide (in her performances she interferes with the image as it is thrown). Nothing is predetermined: Rochat approaches the photograph as a source of potential to unlock, using the tools at her disposal to see what emerges organically."