Captures


In her recent series, Captures (2021) Bellet produces a suite of drawings using ferrofluid on clear glass. The sepia-toned liquid is composed of ferromagnetic nanoparticles which become activated in the presence of magnetic objects. After applying the fluid to a panel of glass, Bellet utilizes a small magnet to draw the pool of liquid into trails of abstracted filigrees and linear patterns. Due to the strength of the magnetic attraction, she is unable to fully control the motion of the ferrofluid, which spontaneously renders a web of tributaries and feather-like coils. Bellet performs this experiment on both sides of the glass panel, ultimately creating a sense of depth and visual complexity through the sensitive interplay of opacity, transparency, and organic form.
—Excerpt from a text from art Historian Allison Young, 2022
—Photography Serge Hasenboehler and Oliver Lovey