Karen Avilez

I have been passionate about finding an art practice that generates a very low negative impact to the environment and that produces very little waste, I found it on cyanotypes. 

 

I use materials that are reusable like old picture frames I buy from charity shops, pieces of cardboard from packaging, papers that I either get gifted or I buy leftover materials like pieces of fabric. I try not to work with acetate sheets unless I have a very specific project in mind. I know many artists use them to create beautiful work but I avoid it because of how wasteful it is to print on plastic. 

When printing on tiles and glass (work in progress) I use Agar-agar instead of gelatin because since I'm experimenting then after an error occurs I must get rid of everything, in this case plant based material rather than animal.

 

About energy usage, well I live in England and we can't do sun printing without sunshine! So during the summer months all my printing takes place outside in my garden. But during winter I set up a corner in my house where I place UV lamps. I have 1 printing day a week which are most of the time Thursdays, rarely it has to be moved to Tuesdays. 

During the week I write down my ideas about which prints I want to create, I then pre coat the surfaces and save them for my printing day.

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The main reasons I do this are:

 

• Lack of space, my studio is very small and I can't clear everything away everyday to set up the lamps.

•  I can organise my ideas in a way that when I have a printing day then I can print many things under the light at once instead of 1 print at a time. 

•  Water usage: you need to fill up a bowl of water to reveal 1 print or 5 prints. So I might as well reuse the water as many times as I can. 

 

In Peru there's sunlight and high UV levels almost everyday of the year so a lamp is not really necessary.

 

Another thing I do is to work with animal skin like lizard and snake, or insects and spiders, I also use feathers from Birds of prey. I work at a Zoo and rescue centre as an exotic animal handler and this is where I get ideas from to create some of my prints. I love wildlife photography, I've been to the Amazon jungle quite a few times and that's the place where my journey with cyanotypes begun. 

 

I'll be meeting with a group of women that elaborate papers made out of plantain and cocona (Amazonian fruit) fibers. The part of the plants they use is the non-edible parts. I've used this paper for cyanotype and it works fantastic. All papers are handmade, the waste is organic and free from any harmful chemicals to people or wildlife, the main ingredients come from produce from the area (Chazuta, Tarapoto in Perú). This also has a social background, the women working in these workshops have children under the age of 5, they are victims of violence or have been displaced from their native land. Their paper making business is their only source of income which is divided equality between all the workers involved. They make their money by selling this papers to artists and crafters living in the capital city of Lima, some even go abroad.

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