Conditional Imaging - After Mona

After Mona appeared still and empty until a UV torch revealed a shifting figure. The piece changed with angle, light, and attention, inviting viewers to discover what sits between seen and unseen. Simple materials and trial carry the idea of conditional imaging into a quiet, participatory experience.

After Mona was part of the exhibition Strange Materials, a group show exploring artworks made with unusual or unexpected materials. My piece was invisible ink artwork, it was installed with a small UV torch mounted on the wall beside it. From a distance, it looked like a blank surface in a gold leaf frame. Clean, still, almost empty.

At the opening, I watched people walk past without noticing it at all. Some paused, tilted their heads, and moved on. Others hovered for longer, catching a faint impression on the surface. It wasn’t until someone picked up the UV torch that the image began to shift. Slowly, the figure revealed itself, glowing in reverse like a photo negative.

People began filming it, and that’s when we noticed something new. On screen, depending on where the torch was held, the image would briefly switch from inverted to what looked almost like a regular portrait, and then back again. That version hadn’t been seen before. We hadn’t thought to video it.

There’s something about that discovery. That the piece wasn’t finished revealing itself until opening night. The fact that you can walk right past it and see nothing, or spend a moment with it and see three or four different things, depending on light, movement, and perspective, feels central to the work.

Some people circled back a few times. Others asked what it was made from, or if it was meant to do that. A few just stood quietly, scanning the surface with the torch, following the shapes as they appeared and disappeared. One person thought it was a whiteboard and the torch was a marker.

The materials themselves are simple, but unfamiliar in this context. Invisible ink. Glow pigment. A surface prepared in layers. The invisible ink isn’t completely invisible, which I didn’t realise until after it was done. In some light, the image becomes faintly visible without the UV torch. It sits just on the edge of perception. The whole process was trial and error. I didn’t start with a plan. I just followed the image as it came together.

When people ask me where the idea came from, I honestly don’t know. It’s one of those works that came through me. I resonate with the saying, As an artist, I’m not here to judge, I’m here to create. This felt like that. A kind of quiet trust in the process.

What I’ve started thinking about more is this idea of Conditional Imaging. Work that doesn’t sit in a fixed state. That relies on outside conditions. On light. On movement. On chance. These aren’t hidden images exactly, but they’re not always there either. They exist in the space between seen and unseen. Between still and shifting.

After Mona revealed itself to me slowly, even after it was finished. Maybe that’s the point. That the work continues, not just through its materials, but through the way it’s encountered.

-- AM