Doug Fogelson’s Violet Hour Mural

The Violet Hour Mural, Doug Fogelson

I recently installed a photographic mural on the façade of the cocktail lounge called The Violet Hour in Chicago’s Wicker Park neighborhood. The image was one of many manipulated photographic works I produced for the series titled “Exit Eden” exhibited last year in the City Gallery at the Historic Water Tower and in a few places outside of Chicago. The series consists of lush “Edenic” nature imagery shot on film which I partially decay using chemicals to bleach away color and melt the layers of the films emulsion. Viewing at the scale of the mural the image is quite abstract in close range and then resolves as the viewer steps back.

The print for the Violet Hour Mural was technically challenging because it enlarged a very small piece of film to a huge size. Using chemicals to degrade the film creates crystalline forms and patterns that needed enlargement in order to be fully enjoyed. The original film was drum scanned and then printed via ink jet to cover the 38-foot by 9-foot area. Wheat paste glue was used to adhere the mural to the bumpy surface of wall.

Detail: The Violet Hour Mural, Doug Fogelson

It is a temporary installation so I know the life of this piece will be short. Winter weather is less of a degrading factor than the potential of people pulling it apart or leaving their mark on it, somewhat analogous to the nature it depicts. Aside from the wash of color it provides on the street it has a macro/micro relationship for the viewers at different distances. The image fluctuates between abstraction and representation, simultaneously in harmony and discord with trees in the sidewalk and the urban location.

Please see the “Exit Eden” series in full here:

http://dougfogelson.com/exit-eden/

Contributor: Doug Fogelson