Solarstalgia

Presented at lokal_30, Diana Lelonek’s exhibition is associated with the artist’s return to her roots, namely to photography, which she studied at UAP in Poznań. The artist also looks back to the very beginnings of this field of art, by employing early photographic techniques – solarigraphy, cyanotype, and anthotype. The works created in this way are unique – no two prints are the same. They are also produced in close relationship with nature, which has been at the centre of Lelonek’s artistic practice for a number of years. The title of the exhibition directs our attention towards the sun, which was once the essential factor in the process of producing photographs. As André Rouillé writes, the material character of photography, resulting from the exchange of energy between the object and the image, has given way to the mathematical and logical universe of digital images. The show’s title, Solarstalgia also draws on the term “solastalgia,” used to describe the melancholy and distress caused by environmental catastrophe.

In early 2024, Lelonek was invited to give a solo presentation at the Glacier Garden Museum in Lucerne as part of the exhibition series Watching the Glacier Disappear. The artist was no stranger to the subject. In 2019, together with the German composer Demin Szram, she had completed Melting Gallery – an installation combining sounds recorded on melting glaciers: Rhône, Aletsch, and Morteratsch. The artist’s latest project was inspired by the practice of covering the Rhône glacier with tarpaulins intended to protect it from melting. Unfortunately, the effect was the opposite. And to make matters worse, the tarpaulins, made of artificial plastic, further burden the environment by polluting the glacier and the water at the source of the Rhone with microplastics.

Lelonek set out to develop photographs on large sheets of fabric with the use of the light-sensitive cyanotype technique, which relies on exposing a layer of cloth or paper coated with this substance to the sun. One of the first people to use this technique was the British botanist and photographer Anna Atkins, who in the mid–19th century, by pressing plants to sheets of paper coated with iron salts, produced an extraordinary negative atlas of algae. Atkins’ achievement, as well as the Prussian blue obtained through the use of cyanotype – which resembles the colour of glaciers – ultimately inspired Lelonek to use this sunlight-dependent technology.

In order to create the solarigraphs, which were later developed in cyanotype, Lelonek first had to travel to the mountains. Her destination was a shepherd’s shed located on an alpine pasture. In early spring, the artist and her partner set off for the Alps, taking turns carrying a large box containing a camera obscura with light-sensitive paper inside. For two months, the sun streaming in through a hole in the camera drew its path against the background of the monumental mountain peaks. The end result of this process was a negative in which the sun literally burned its mark.

The experience of working with the sun and early photographic techniques awakened the artist’s curiosity for experimenting with the material aspects of photography and minimising the use of inorganic materials. “When I was creating these cyanotypes, I thought to myself that I want to find something that would be organic and closer to the earth. Actually, one such technique is the anthotype. It was used in the 18th century, before the invention of photography, and relies on the photosensitive properties of plants. It’s a simple technique, but requires plenty of time and patience.”

The anthotypes shown in the exhibition depict Văcărești Nature Park in Bucharest, created on what was once one of the largest urban wastelands in Europe, where plant-life and wildlife flourished following the abandoned Ceausescu-era reservoir and dam project. Lelonek gathered plants, squeezed their juices, drained them, and immediately painted the fabric, which soon turned light-sensitive. She then exposed it to the sun, sometimes for several weeks. “Each plant has a different growing season and also a different exposure time. So, one really needs to tune into the rhythm of the seasons, the rhythm of growth and flourishing. I use this technique as a way to escape the overproduction of photography, because unlike digital techniques, each image takes time, patience, and focus. I’d look for plants and then sit and squeeze for a few hours. In my work, I rely on ruderal plants collected in urban wastelands, mainly: Canadian goldenrod, tansies, nettles, yarrow, and common mugwort.”

The solar turn in Diana Lelonek’s work is directly related to her search for techniques that are as minimally invasive as possible, a wish to free oneself from the dominant technology and follow the path of photography’s material nature. It is also a turn towards the basic, life-giving processes of solar energy and photosynthesis.

Curator: Agnieszka Rayzacher

Translation: Joanna Figiel