Experiments in Alchemy is held in conjunction with the 20/20 Photo Festival - which The Halide Project co-produces - and was born out of the horizontal portfolio reviews at the 2023 Experimental Photo Festival, where Halide co-founder Dale Rio selected the work of Lexy Xiao to be exhibited.

Photography is the offspring of physics and chemistry. And although its origins are firmly grounded in science, the medium has been utilized since its inception as a form of artistic expression. This balance between science and art has both defined and dogged photography throughout its existence with artists alternately embracing or eschewing its literal nature and its entre into the upper echelons of the fine art world having long been challenged. The artists in Experiments in Alchemy explore this symbiotic relationship between the scientific and the artistic within the medium of analog photography with a focus on its material aspects and an experimental approach that leaves space for serendipity, gracefully melding the tangible and the magical.

Experiments in Alchemy opens on September 6, 2024. Please email info@thehalideproject.org to make an appointment.

Through the use of the soil chromatography technique, Gül Cevikoglu allows the histories, emotions, and energies of the lands upon which she has walked to express themselves. An immigrant who has lived in several different countries, her yearning for a connection to place and her search for a sense of belonging manifest in the project Silent Dialogues: TERRA VOCE, which weaves together her personal background, family history, ancestral narrative, and the spirit of the land. 

In her series Control, Bridget Conn explores the spectrum of control she is witnessing in American society, including the control of information and education and the amount of control individuals have over their own bodies. Utilizing the chemigram processes – often perceived as liberating and loose – she places parameters upon her material in an attempt to harness its organic forms into strict geometric confines. Working in an outdoor space, the introduction of natural elements forces her to examine the value of control versus release and accept the beauty in that which cannot be controlled.

Lexy Liangzi Xiao uses analog photographic chemicals as her subject matter, reshaping and reinterpreting them in order to provide a new way of observing and comprehending them. Expressed in a visual and conceptual loop, the photographic materials explain the subject matter, and the image content depicts the materials. By focusing on the photo chemistry itself, Xiao seeks to provide visibility to the essential materiality of the medium, which is often overlooked or underappreciated.