The artistic endeavors of Jeff Cunningham are myriad; the shaggy-maned Scotsman is a musician, photographer, painter, and special-effects craftsman in addition to his newest role as a photo-sculptural experimenter. The offbeat path that led Jeff to develop his own medium that encases pictures within light-bending mountings – which he calls “alchemic glass” – was an intriguingly winding route traveling from his native Glasgow to London to Budapest, where these works are currently the subject of his first solo exhibition at the avant-garde Artphoto Gallery, found among the many cultural destinations of Bartók Béla Avenue.
Jeff’s photos primarily feature architecturally significant buildings of Budapest and Scotland, which he creates more as semi-abstract portrayals of geometrically compelling patterns intensified by haphazardly illuminated windows and doorways, rather than as simple urban-landscape images. However, it’s the innovative casting of these gossamer visions within layers of glass – or more accurately, clear resins and lacquers – that bring Jeff’s images alive, adding depth to each scene with underlaid shadows and tones, and even some subtly painted surfaces occasionally added to give the visuals surreal elements.
Experimental aesthetics enveloped Jeff during his upbringing in Glasgow, the hometown of world-renowned artist and architect Charles Rennie Mackintosh – a major influence on Europe’s Art Nouveau movement, whose unconventionally beautiful buildings still stand in his native city as revered landmarks. Determined to pursue an artistic career from a young age, Jeff initially developed his musical talents amid the Glasgow club scene before completing a course in special effects at London South Bank University in 2002; after seeking international film-industry employment, he got the opportunity to work in Budapest’s burgeoning moviemaking field, joining the crews of major productions here like The Last Samurai, Underworld, and Steven Spielberg’s Munich.
In addition to bringing Jeff to a city he instantly loved, these cinematic labors proved invaluable to his artistic growth. “Our work was solely fine-art based as opposed to digital, involving specialized techniques including sculpting, mold-making, casting, airbrush painting, and model-building – all to a very high standard with the guidance of world-class professionals,” he said. However, in between movie shoots, Jeff also developed a deep affinity for the aesthetics of Budapest that he still has today. “On exploring this exciting new city, I couldn’t help feeling a comforting sense of déjà vu as I wandered by ornate Art Nouveau façades and backlit wrought-iron portals, reminding me of my hometown, Glasgow – a city of stunning architecture, built in the same era.”
Naturally, Jeff was also attracted to Budapest’s nightlife scene, and became a founding member of the local band Dead Guys – a “cosmic blues-rock” collective loosely comprised of Hungarian and international musicians, which played at multiple Sziget Festivals and countless dive bars. Playing gigs with the band involved many late nights that turned into early mornings, and while out and about on Budapest’s cobblestoned streets during these odd hours, Jeff gained an appreciation for the way that the changing light of dusks and dawns affect a building’s appearance.
In subsequent years, Jeff embarked on open-ended European rambles powered by wanderlust and his Honda Africa Twin, taking him across the map from Italy to Albania to the Netherlands and back to his native Scotland. While living in Edinburgh for a spell, Jeff followed his fascination with the interplay of light and architecture, creating a remarkable series of rooftop paintings that portrayed the same chimneys at different times of day, capturing the sometimes-subtle and sometimes-obvious changes of color caused by the sun’s position. After receiving positive feedback on these works, Jeff decided to devote himself wholeheartedly to visual art, but with an inkling of creating something extraordinary that could combine his collected experiences.
Returning to Hungary but wanting to avoid the after-hours temptations of Budapest, Jeff created a cottage studio in the artist’s village of Szentendre and diligently got to work on developing a novel medium, which turned into “alchemic glass” by a process of trial and error (and error). Based on his knowledge of resins and lacquers gained in the special-effects industry, Jeff set about encasing his structural photographs of Budapest, Glasgow, and Edinburgh within translucent layers of glass that each hold various visual elements of the photos millimeters apart from each other, giving them a unique depth that changes depending on the qualities of light behind it.
This painstaking work involves many opportunities for things to go wrong – after pouring a thin new layer of clear resin on top of a previously cast image, many hours of work can be ruined if the chemicals were not mixed exactly right or set unevenly, while the inherently fragile nature of these efforts caused many pieces to end up in pieces. However, amid months of experimenting with this process, Jeff’s work impressed renowned Hungarian photographer László Haris during an event at Budapest’s Mai Manó Ház photography museum, and he encouraged Jeff to continue his efforts.
Jeff’s dedication paid off handsomely in the long run, as he not only perfected a method of consistently producing his glass-art pieces, but even figured out how to carve these works into blocky triptychs that can be creatively arranged depending on the setting or light source. The nature of Jeff’s works make their physical placement essential to the visual effect that they present – while the pieces provide a consistently fascinating appearance when hung on a white wall, if they are placed before a window, the changing light of day brings out different elements of the scenes captured in the multi-layered photographs, which are sometimes even enhanced with light layers of hand-painted shading.
All of these layers ameliorate each other to make the captured images come alive in a way that may seem familiar to those who recognize the buildings and other scenes portrayed in Jeff’s works, but he hopes that viewers do not see these photos as simple documentation of city settings, but as semi-abstract visions. “We all have this natural temptation to label images of buildings or street scenes, to categorize them somehow – the exact addresses and what the buildings are currently used for, which misses the point here,” he said. “I like to invite viewers of my work to look first then ask questions later, allowing room for the imagination to kick in.”
The overall effect of Jeff’s “alchemic glass” presents a fascinating overview of varied Budapest scenery in his new “Parallel Worlds” exhibit, featuring the city’s architecturally stunning courtyards and doorways, Nyugati Railway Station, varied street scenes, and impressive Art Nouveau façades. While Jeff has made several pieces that display his photography from Scotland, he chose to exclusively present Budapest imagery in this exhibit, which opened this week with an introductory speech by László Haris and immediate attention from national Hungarian media. Adding to his momentum, Jeff recently learned that his work will appear this summer at the 2017 British Glass Biennale – and while he is deeply grateful for the mentorship of Mr. Haris and the international interest in his pieces, the melding of inspiration and hard work “to get to this point has been rewarding in itself,” Jeff said. “It’s all part of the creative process.”
“Parallel Worlds” is on view at the Artphoto Gallery (Budapest 1111, Bartók Béla út 30) every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday between 3pm and 7pm through June 30th; check out the Jeff Cunningham Glass Facebook page for more details.
