Downtown, Los Angeles
Ben Borden
Terminal
As It StandsAs It Stands is pleased to present Terminal, an exhibition of new works by Los Angeles based artist Ben Borden. Comprised of works on glass, Borden utilizes a hybrid chemical and organic process combining algae with potassium ferricyanide, salt, iron and nitric acid: the industrial chemicals utilized to create Prussian Blue, the first synthesized pigment discovered by alchemist Johann Jacob Diesbach in 1704. Iron, acid and salt spark a chemical reaction that changes form and color over a matter of months at a pace undetectable to the human eye. These images have no concluded final state, only pausing when Borden exposes them to infrared light. These “reaction works” continue Borden’s longstanding exploration of generative image-making. Combining elements of sculpture, photography and printmaking, they are immanent “anti-captured” portraits of their own contents, negotiations of control and collaboration that challenge notions of authorship and the artist’s hand. Collapsing vestigial modes of production with emerging technologies, Borden’s work confronts the contemporary anxieties surrounding the production of the image, suggesting that what appears stable and present always carries traces of earlier states, ghosts of processes and movements folded into the final form. Ben Borden lives and works in Los Angeles. Recent exhibitions include Gallery 12.26 (Dallas), Noon Projects (Los Angeles), and Kulttuurisauna (Helsinki). He received his Masters in Industrial Design from ArtCenter College, Pasadena in 2018.