Traces, Indexes, and Implied Presence
Imprints, residues and marks left behind that point to a body, action or event no longer present.
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About
Some marks point directly to what made them: a footprint, a scorch, a body's hollow in a cushion. Philosophers call such signs indexes, and art has used them to suggest a presence that is no longer there. William Henry Fox Talbot's photogenic drawings of the 1830s were made by laying leaves and lace on sensitised paper, so each image is a literal imprint of its subject.
From the 1970s artists made the trace a subject. Ana Mendieta pressed her body into mud, sand and grass or outlined it in flowers and fire for her Silueta series (1973–80), and David Hammons printed his greased body and clothes onto paper, dusting the marks with pigment. Doris Salcedo sealed the worn shoes of people who disappeared in Colombia behind stitched animal membrane in Atrabiliarios (1992–97), and Morgan O'Hara draws continuous lines that follow the hand movements of musicians and speakers as they perform.
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