During 1999, Pepper began reducing the size of the holographic elements within his works. This was partly a way of exploring the relative impact the holograms had on the overall work or installation, and partly due to an interest in the ‘reduced mark’, a method of working that could be more subtle than the more traditional “poke-you-in-the-eye” phenomenon which holography has certainly embraced.
Title: Vertical Overlap – Drawn Transfer
Date: 2013
Dimensions: 26.3 x 25.4 x 20.3 cm (10.3 x 10 x 8 inches)
Materials: Reflection holograms on glass, wood, plastic
Edition: Unique
Here, in Vertical Overlap – Drawn Transfer, two vertical reflection holograms on glass face each other as they protrude from a low-fi composite wooden base.
Each contains the pseudoscopic image of the shadow of water – dark marks which undulate and shift as an observer moves past them.
These motifs have been used by Pepper in earlier works and are particularly evident in Vertical Liquid Supported (shown in Seoul and New York) and Light Liquid, which was included in the Miniments exhibition in 2011.
In both of these earlier works, Pepper became increasingly interested in the ‘peripheral view’ – the moment when the content of the hologram becomes visible or ‘blinks’ out of existence.
There are times when the holographic element of the installation is not visible at all, requiring the observer to move to a different viewing angle until the image becomes visible.
Not Seeing
In Vertical Overlap – Drawn Transfer, the act of ‘not seeing’ is emphasised.
Illuminated by two lights, the images from each hologram column are reconstructed in a traditional way and in keeping with the optics of the recorded holograms; however, their images (dark marks) are reconstructed within the space opposite that occupied by the other hologram.
It is not actually possible to fully see the holographic images (a slight flash of a mark or light may be visible). The piece is entirely promissory and based specifically on the reconstruction geometry of the holographic process and its display.
