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Density 1936-1938
Density 1936-1938
Object number2021.32

Density 1936-1938

Portfolio/Seriesfrom the series Substance of Density
Date2020
Artist (American, born 1953)
CultureAmerican
MediumThree unique gelatin silver prints
DimensionsFramed: 15 3/4 x 18 1/8 x 1 1/2 in. (40 x 46 x 3.8 cm)
Credit LinePurchase, Advisory Council for Photography
On View
Not on view
Period21st c
Classification(s)
InscribedOn a printed Yossi Milo Gallery label affixed to the reverse of frame: Alison Rossiter / (American, b. 1953) / Density 1936-1938, 2020 / [image of recto] / Three Gelatin Silver Prints / Framed: 15 3/4 x 18 11/16" (40 x 46cm) / Signed, Titled and Dated Verso in Pencil / Unique / AR21559 / REPRESENTED BY / YOSSI MILO GALLERY, INC. / 245 Tenth Avenue, NY, NY 10001 / TEL: 212.414.0370 / yossimilo.com; by unidentified hand, upper left on label in pencil: FLLAC 2021.32
BibliographyBrier, Jessica D.. On the Grid: Ways of Seeing in Print. Poughkeepsie, NY: Vassar College in association with Scala Arts Publishers, Inc., 2022, pl. 13 ProvenancePurchased from Yossi Milo Gallery, 2021
Vassar Exhibitions
Exhibition HistoryAlison Rossiter: Substance of Density 1918-1948, Yossi Milo Gallery, Inc., New York, NY, March 6 - May 2, 2020;

On the Grid: Ways of Seeing in Print, Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center, Vassar College, August 20 - December 22, 2022
Label TextAlison Rossiter works with expired photographic papers, processing them in the darkroom to create durational records. Sourced through online auction decades after expiration, these sheets carry markings that accrue through storage: oxidation gradients, pressure shadows, atmospheric interference. Density 1936-1938 spans eighty-two years between manufacture and processing, making this temporal leap the work’s conceptual foundation. As critic Lloyd Wise observes, Rossiter’s work is “less an elegy for predigital photography, however, than a meditation on the medium’s myriad historical forms.” Trained in photography conservation under Peter Mustardo, she calls these “time capsules” where sheets endure before fulfilling their original function. The three prints shown here each respond differently to age. Working between accident and intention, she discovers what the material itself remembers.
DescriptionHinged on board; white maplewood frame; non-reflective, UV-filtered Optium Museum Acrylic; individual elements are not to be separated. Three gelatin silver prints of varying sizes mounted to board, each with different tonal qualities ranging in color from grey, to a warm sand-like color.
Object information is a work in progress and may be updated as new research findings emerge. To help improve this record, please email loebcollections@vassar.edu