Polaroid Paintings — 1982-1986

In his Polaroid Paintings Balth intervened in the brief developing process of Polaroid photographs and enlarged the result, thus changing the character and meaning of real and chemically produced light.

Artwork without the Tulipman, 1986
Malevic artwork
Untitled (To Malevich), 1985, collection Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam

The Polaroid Paintings were created by blowing up images of Polaroid pictures manipulated during their developing process.

While the Polaroid picture developed, Balth applied pressure and thus affected the chemical emulsions inside the layered film paper, thus often radically transforming the image. The result is a mixture of photographed reality with an additional layer of strange imagery, suggesting the registration of ethereal or intangible things involving memory and affect.

Where the landscape ends, 1985, Private Collection Hong Kong