Ghost Notes

“Ghost Notes”, 22.5″ x 22.5″, photograph on waxed washi paper, straight pins, photograph on rag paper

In this new series Ghost Notes I continue to utilize materials, layers, texture and the mark of my hand to further the story of the photograph. However, instead of the solidity of the steel in my Mile Marker series, I am utilizing the whisper like quality of waxed washi paper to suspend time by eschewing detail and context, creating a veiled placeholder to contain our memories. In music, ghost notes are notes that are played but not meant to be heard, thereby giving amplification to the others around it.

From Wikipedia:, “Ghost notes, however, are not simply the unaccented notes in a pattern. The unaccented notes in such a pattern as a clave are considered to represent the mean level of emphasis—they are neither absolutely emphasized nor unemphasized. If one further deemphasizes one of these unaccented notes to the same or a similar extent to which the accented notes in the pattern are emphasized, then one has ‘ghosted’ that note. In a case in which a ghost note is deemphasized to the point of silence, that note then represents a rhythmic placeholder in much the same way as does a rest. This can be a very fine distinction, and the ability of an instrumentalist to differentiate between what is a ghost note and what is a rest is governed largely by the acoustic nature of the instrument.”