'HOLOGRAPHIC HISTORY at VISUAL ALCHEMY'Essay and holograms by Al Razutis - Vancouver, Canada
'A studio of levitations and gears of light' - 1976 The companion piece to A very familiar subject to Alice... - Georgio DeChirico The 1970's and Holographic Art  In all emerging medias of the 20th century, there have been many that made 'claims' while others 'did the work'. Typically, the claims of 'who did what and when' must be measured by against historical facts, and not merely a claimant's always imperfect re collections. In holography, there have been many (false) claims made, many appropriations of history and authorship, and in this short essay, I wished to 'set the record straight' as far as some of the origins of art holography in Canada, and to give credit where credit is due. Holographic imaging was developed at Visual Alchemy Studio Inc. in 1973-77 as a new media joining my then present work and facilities in experimental film and video. The physical space -- typical of technical studios in the 60's and 70's -- was full of machines (optical printer, animation stand, editing rooms, etc.) and low of living comforts. Here, one could say, the 'Visual Alchemy' consisted (in part) of visualizing virtual medias into existence, and by virtue of experimenting with their (Plato's) cave-like shadow-reflections of the 'real' (that which is called objective) world-object-scenes - recorded photograhically or holographically. This was a time of cross-disciplinary exploration, experiments in various medias, and much of the inspiration for this holographic work came from the 'inter-media' environment in the arts. Since holography, per se, had yet to be established as an 'art form' (there were no exhibitions of 'fine art holography' in Canada at the time), all form of experimentation was possible. And there were no precedents, rules, or 'examples' of correct or incorrect 'expression'. Canadian arts funding and the beginnings of holographic art Seed moneys for holography came in the form of two consecutive Canada Council for the Arts Senior Arts Grants (Penni Jacques, officer) and some special project funding from the Vancouver office of the National Film Board of Canada (Peter Jones, producer). These people and organizations took a chance on something no one (except for a few physicists) had seen or understood in Canada. My ongoing work in avant-garde film, animation - opticals, video and videosynthesizers, with assistance provided by Gordon Kidd and collaborations with Gary Lee-Nova, were expanded with grant funds to include holography. I was soon joined in the 'holographic adventure' by Catharine MacTavish - solo artist and partner in many adventures, and paid assistants, notably Rick Gibson. The various experiments with holographic image making, projection, and the creation of 'holograms' as metaphycis, art, imaging technology, novelty and plaything were undertaken until 1977 in studio rooms with black walls resulting in a traveling exhibition. A Canadian predecessor to my holography work, Jerry Pethick, one of the 'ORIGINALS' in sandbox holography (Ann Arbor, Michigan), schools of holography (San Francisco), and collaborator with another holographic pioneer, Lloyd Cross, came by early on and told me to "forget it"...someday I'll "really get to hate making art exclusively in a darkroom." He was ultimately right,...but that 'someday' happened 5 years later when I left the whole thing behind and travelled to Samoa (only to return again, with more work in the 80's...).
The first holograms at Visual Alchemy Early work at Visual Alchemy consisted of 4x5" and 8x10" glass plates recording 'stable' objects over long duration exposures 'frozen' in time and isolated from vibrations by means of 'isolation' tables. Photo processing of the high-resolution photographic plates was conducted in a makeshift darkroom. The projected holographic image ('floating in space') was certainly the overwhelming and initial fascination, but this fascination was tied to principles of 'visual alchemy' rather than technical representation (mimetic fidelity to original subjects). Work soon involved larger format (up to 36" x 30") transmission holograms, white-light reflection holograms, cylinder (spatially multiplexed) holograms, and multi-media holographic sculptures, like the one depicted in 'AETHER VANE' - 1976. Refer to the list of early works and exhibitions contained in EARLY HOLOGRAPHIC ART (LIST) with photographs and installation shots contained in VISUAL ALCHEMY IMAGES. The laboratory facilities included two custom-made isolation tables (metal top and large sandbox), custom-built He-Ne lasers (power supplies built by Bill Hewitt and Jim Armstrong), and an assortment of optics, and darkroom elements. It is fair to say that in these 'early days' of art holography, there were few established technical precedents,and no presumptive aesthetics to follow. Everything was created in the spirit of 'invention' and discovery. I pursued the work in relative geographic and cultural isolation - the only other studios that began in the mid-70's in Canada were at Fringe Research, in Toronto, operated by Michael Sowdon and David Hlynsky, and the labs and teaching facilities of Michael Page (Ontario College of Art and later Photon League). However, none of this work at Visual Alchemy could be accomplished completely solo. I greatly benefited from the assistance of Catharine MacTavish (holography), Gordon Kidd (film opticals), and later, Rick Gibson (holography). All of these mentioned individuals had independent careers and were responsible for accomplished work outside of this studio chronology. Also noteworthy in their support and technical advice during the 70's were Dr. Leigh Palmer of the Physics Department at Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, British Columbia, and the independent technical-electronic creators Jim Armstrong and Jerry Barenholtz. While I offered classes and workshops in holography, at Banff Centre for the Arts (Theater Design) and elsewhere, with the collaboration of Catharine MacTavish, most of the holography work at Visual Alchemy concerned the creation of strange 'hybrid' multi-media pieces which integrated holograms with sculptural and graphic elements. This early work (1972-74) was considered 'tests' for the final series of pieces which would comprise the travelling exhibition "VISUAL ALCHEMY" The exhibition climate for holographic art in the 1970's From inception, it was my contention that holography should not be exhibited until some kind of aesthetic rationale had been developed. In this, I was in the 'minority', since several exhibitions (including one that travelled from New York) were mounted featuring generic-toy technical holograms made by technicians eager 'to get exposure' and to fascinate a new and eager public. Lacking a critical climate, the holographic medium (in the 70's) featured a 'melange' of aesthetic styles, exorbitant claims as to its 'future', presence of trite subject matter competing with more serious investigations, and the usual claims of 'this is the first of its kind'. An entire book could be written outlining the various frauds that were perpetrated (upon both the gallery and commercial clients) by the many personalities that subsequently vanished once the profit, novelty and opportunity to exploit public curiosity had lapsed. Refer to my WAVEFRONT (Summer 1985, Winter 1985) "ART AND HOLOGRAPHY" essays, PartOne,and PartTwo, for a detailed discussion of this subject. Creating the Visual Alchemy exhibition
Preparations for this exhibition were assisted by Rick Gibson who was trained to be holographic laboratory (plate processing) assistant in 1976, and Martin Grove who would later undertake to be the travelling curator and installation officer for the year-plus Canada-wide tour of the entire show. The innaugural exhibition (curated by Elisa Anstis) opened in 1976 at the Burnaby Art Gallery, the sponsor of this exhibition, and the organizing sponsor of the travelling exhibition. The innaugural exhibition was followed by a exhibition in Ottawa (under the sponsorship, organization and support of Lorraine Monk - Head of National Film Board Photo Division), and this Ottwawa 3-month exhibition was presented in a large custom-modified space, and opened (Canada Day, 1977) by Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau, with daily attendance in the thousands. Following the Ottawa venue the exhibition began a year-long tour of major Canadian cities and was finally exhibited at the Seattle Science Center in 1978. Further plans to have the show exhibited in Los Angeles and Moscow did not come to fruition due to financial and political reasons. Entropy and loss Holographic art and installations were extremely fragile in the 70's - most of the holograms were on glass, typically on silver-halide emulsions, and some installations required fragile set-ups. At the conclusion of the touring exhibition (during which a number of pieces were damaged or destroyed in faulty exhibition circumstances, beyond the Mr. Grove's control), much of the remaining work was dispersed (like effects of entropy on matter) or exhibited individually (eg. Franklin Institute exhibition, or Eve Ritscher's European and U.K. (Bath and London) exhibitions. Some additional works by Razutis (created in the 80's) were also stolen in exhibition (Frankfurt), or destroyed in transit (Montreal) and storage (Los Angeles). Barely ten percent of the works survive to this day (2005). That's the way the proverbial 'cookie crumbles'. However, the complete list of works / available photos is contained in EARLY HOLOGRAPHIC ART (list) with some photographs and installation shots from various exhibitions in VISUAL ALCHEMY images. Closing the studio, but not the story In 1977, I closed the Vancouver Studio of Visual Alchemy, leaving many items behind for interested parties to 'help themselves with', and I left for the Samoan Islands in the South Pacific to 'write novels'. Thus, the first chapter - that which dealt with invention and one of the origins of holographic art in Canada at Visual Alchemy in the 1970's - was closed. Holographic works by Razutis would continue through the 80's and 90's in other locations, each one a 'temporary home' for the studio that kept resurfacing as 'Visual Alchemy'. These further histories are found in other pages on this site. This recounting of the details and events surrounding one of the 'births of holography' in Canada is dedicated to the above individuals and institutions without whom none of this work would have been possible. COMPLETE LIST OF WORKS: VISUAL ALCHEMY - HOLOGRAPHY - Al Razutis 1972-92 VISUAL ALCHEMY - HOLOGRAPHY - Pictorial history
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