For Manufactured Manual, Jaya Pelupessy developed a new photographic technique, in which he approaches the traditional technique of screen-printing in his own way. “Screen printing is based on the principle of photosensitivity, and I have always approached it as a form of photography. I see no difference between exposing light-sensitive paper in a dark room or exposing a screen-printing screen with UV-light,” — explains the artist. The screen is normally a tool for pushing coloured ink through but Jaya Pelupessy turns that tool into the artwork itself. It is typical of his working method in which the making process itself – as well as its analysis – become the end result.
In this project, Pelupessy is deconstructing colour and light into the components of CMYK and RGB colour schemes. He has developed his own colour emulsions by adding pigments to transparent screen-printing solutions. The artist applies these self-made emulsions to the screen-printing screen and exposes it to UV light using a light box. Where the emulsion is exposed to light, it hardens and adheres to the screen – the rest can be washed away with water.
All the screens are built up with multiple exposures and different colours, one over the other. By overlaying the negatives of different images, Pelupesy creates collages. For the negatives, he uses found footage from his collection of photography technique books in which photography explains itself, as it were. Hands that block out the light, or landscapes that illustrate a certain shutter speed. The title Manufactured Manual is a direct reference to the archival images taken from the photography manuals. The artist combines these images with contemporary image manipulations used in photoshop such as the clone stamp or brush tools.