Metamorphic (4)
Artist
Yael Eban
(Israeli, active United States, born 1985)
Artist
Matthew Gamber
and (American, born 1977)
Date2022
MediumPhotogram of marbling ink on gelatin silver paper, unique
Dimensionssheet: 101.6 × 81.3 cm (40 × 32 in.)
ClassificationsPhotographs
Credit LineMuseum purchase through the Chapin Riley Fund at the Greater Worcester Community Foundation
Object number2024.187
Label Text
Marbling is an inking technique designed to imitate the veining patterns and luster of marble using paint. Invented in 12th-century Japan, it peaked in popularity in Europe during the 18th and 19th centuries. Employing a wealth of materials, Eban and Gamber’s ongoing project Marbre Vivant uses the history of marble and its 2-D copycat, marbling, as an analog for photography’s dual role as document and illusion.
Here, the collaborators use three photographic techniques to explore the relationship between marble and marbling. Cava di Ravaccione faithfully records a marble quarry, while Metamorphic (4) represents marbling ink transferred onto gelatin silver paper, resulting in a trompe l'oeil surface. Fragments (1-3) employ photogrammetry, a 3-D modeling software, to transform hundreds of photographs of rocks found by the artists into printed sculptures. Marbre Vivant, employing techniques from the 19th century to the present, traces photography's evolution from light drawing to multidimensional form.
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