Sheila Pinkel. Manifestations of a Cube 1974 - 1979

About

Pinkel began Manifestations of a Cube in 1974 with a series of black-and-white photograms of a glass cube, exploring the infinite potential that a simple object has in nature. Pinkel discovered that she was unable to make the same photogram of the cube twice and that there were a seemingly unlimited number of direct impressions this single object could make onto photographic paper. Over time she introduced different processes to the project, making cyanotypes, adding color to the black- and-white photograms using both color Xerox technology and computer manipulation, and using an X-ray technology called Xeroradiography to make prints.

Pinkel explored how each technology reveals a different potential for the cube to make an image. In grids of black-and-white photograms organized like visual music the cube resembles a contortionist figure, appearing melted, warped, stretched, crumpled, or suspended in midair. The addition of color to black-and-white images abstracts the object further and reveals the unique parameters of each color-additive technology. Pinkel’s color experiments culminate in the short film Intuition, which shows a sequence of color permutations being performed on a black-and-white photogram via the computing system at the USC School of Engineering Image Processing Laboratory and was the first digital film made in that lab.

Manifestations of a Cube was also the conceptual inspiration for Multicultural Focus, the cross-cultural exhibition of photography Pinkel organized in 1980 at the Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery. Ultimately, Pinkel wrote a book entitled Manifestations of a Cube about her odyssey using the cube.