Jennifer Garza-Cuen & Odette England
Past Paper // Present Marks: Responding to Rauschenberg

October 20th—November 30th, 2020

Title: MCMXCVII
From the series: Past Paper // Present Marks
Year of completion: 2018-19
Medium: Unique gelatin silver photogram (fixed) on expired paper
Print size: 12x16”
Signed and dated verso by the artists
Inquire

Penumbra Foundation is pleased to present a selection of seventeen photograms from the work Past Paper // Present Marks: Responding to Rauschenberg, by artists Jennifer Garza-Cuen & Odette England.

In 2018, Jennifer Garza-Cuen and Odette England spent a week at the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation Residency in Captiva, Florida, collaborating on a series of nearly 200 photograms. The images were made in Rauschenberg’s swimming pool, using expired 1970s gelatin silver paper found in his darkroom. The two artists ‘activated’ the paper by piercing or slashing the bags and envelopes using pens, scissors, or knives; folding the silver paper at odd angles; or layering them inside the bags. Some sank to the bottom of the pool, while others floated on top or by the filtration units. Exposures were made overnight and throughout the day, allowing different levels and intensities of sunlight, moonlight, and water to penetrate the paper.

Title: XX
From the series: Past Paper // Present Marks
Year of completion: 2018-19
Medium: Unique gelatin silver photogram (fixed) on expired paper
Print size: 20x24”
Signed and dated verso by the artists
Inquire

Title: MCMLXIV
From the series: Past Paper // Present Marks
Year of completion: 2018-19
Medium: Unique gelatin silver photogram (fixed) on expired paper
Print size: 20x24”
Signed and dated verso by the artists
Inquire

Title: CCXII
From the series: Past Paper // Present Marks
Year of completion: 2018-19
Medium: Unique gelatin silver photogram (fixed) on expired paper
Print size: 12x16”
Signed and dated verso by the artists
Inquire

Title: MCMLXXXIII
From the series: Past Paper // Present Marks
Year of completion: 2018-19
Medium: Unique gelatin silver photogram (fixed) on expired paper
Print size: 12x16”
Signed and dated verso by the artists
Inquire

Title: XXXIX
From the series: Past Paper // Present Marks
Year of completion: 2018-19
Medium: Unique gelatin silver photogram (fixed) on expired paper
Print size: 20x24”
Signed and dated verso by the artists
Inquire

Title: CL
From the series: Past Paper // Present Marks
Year of completion: 2018-19
Medium: Unique gelatin silver photogram (fixed) on expired paper
Print size: 20x24”
Signed and dated verso by the artists
Inquire

Title: MCML
From the series: Past Paper // Present Marks
Year of completion: 2018-19
Medium: Unique gelatin silver photogram (fixed) on expired paper
Print size: 12x16”
Signed and dated verso by the artists
Inquire

Title: XVI
From the series: Past Paper // Present Marks
Year of completion: 2018-19
Medium: Unique gelatin silver photogram (fixed) on expired paper
Print size: 12x16”
Signed and dated verso by the artists
Inquire

Title: LII
From the series: Past Paper // Present Marks
Year of completion: 2018-19
Medium: Unique gelatin silver photogram (fixed) on expired paper
Print size: 20x24”
Signed and dated verso by the artists
Inquire

Title: XCV
From the series: Past Paper // Present Marks
Year of completion: 2018-19
Medium: Unique gelatin silver photogram (fixed) on expired paper
Print size: 20x24”
Signed and dated verso by the artists
Inquire

Title: I
From the series: Past Paper // Present Marks
Year of completion: 2018-19
Medium: Unique gelatin silver photogram (fixed) on expired paper
Print size: 20x24”
Signed and dated verso by the artists
Inquire

Title: V
From the series: Past Paper // Present Marks
Year of completion: 2018-19
Medium: Unique gelatin silver photogram (fixed) on expired paper
Print size: 12x16”
Signed and dated verso by the artists
Inquire

Title: MCMLI
From the series: Past Paper // Present Marks
Year of completion: 2018-19
Medium: Unique gelatin silver photogram (fixed) on expired paper
Print size: 20x24”
Signed and dated verso by the artists
Inquire

Title: XIII
From the series: Past Paper // Present Marks
Year of completion: 2018-19
Medium: Unique gelatin silver photogram (fixed) on expired paper
Print size: 20x24”
Signed and dated verso by the artists
Inquire

Title: LXXXIII
From the series: Past Paper // Present Marks
Year of completion: 2018-19
Medium: Unique gelatin silver photogram (fixed) on expired paper
Print size: 20x24”
Signed and dated verso by the artists
Inquire

Title: I-XXIV
From the series: Past Paper // Present Marks
Year of completion: 2018-19
Medium: Unique gelatin silver photogram (fixed) on expired paper
Print size: 12x16”
Signed and dated verso by the artists
Inquire

Jennifer Garza-Cuen is Assistant Professor of Photography at Texas A&M University–Corpus Christi. She is the recipient of numerous grants and fellowships including the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship for Photography, the Light Work Residency Award, and Photo Lucida’s Robert Rauschenberg Residency Award. She received her MFA in Photography with honors from the Rhode Island School of Design and her BA summa cum laude from the American University in Cairo, Egypt.

Odette England is the Visiting Artist-in-Residence at Amherst College, a resident artist of the Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts Studio Program in New York, and director of the Winter Garden Photograph project, for which she received a grant from the Mellon Foundation. She received a four-year fully-funded Research Training Program Scholarship to complete her PhD at the Australian National University in 2018, and has an MFA in Photography with honors from the Rhode Island School of Design. Her work has shown in more than 90 solo, two-person and group exhibitions worldwide.

Images © Jennifer Garza-Cuen & Odette England