The Joly screen process I use is an early additive colour method invented in Ireland (1895). Despite being the first proof that all colours can be made from red, green and blue, John Joly, a physicist and scientist on the fringe of Europe was gazumped by centres of power and influence, when the Lumière Brothers spotty autochromes beat out his striped screens. In reviving the process over the past six years I have used this peripheral outsider historical process to align with my own, identifying as queer, in attempting to fill-in a missing visual history that the process never had a chance to capture. Recent work vexes image histories with additional physical layers, collaging and removing colour, responding to site specific install solutions, and problematising what photography can be.
about the artist
Alan Phelan works in photography, sculpture, film, museum interventions, public art, text and collaborations with other artists, writers and curators. Born in Dublin, 1968, he studied at Dublin City University, 1989 and RIT, New York, 1994.
