Xerox art facts for kids
Xerox art is a cool way to make art using a regular photocopier. It's also called copy art, electrostatic art, scanography, or xerography. This art form started in the 1960s. To make it, artists place objects on the copier's glass (called the platen). Then they press "start" to create an image.
If an object isn't flat, or if the copier lid doesn't fully cover it, the picture can look a bit strange. Moving the object while copying also creates interesting effects. Things like the object's shape, how much light hits the glass, and how far the lid is from the glass all change the final image. Sometimes, artists can make ghostly or blurry pictures on purpose.
Here are some basic ways artists make Xerox art:
- Direct Imaging: Just copying items placed on the glass, like a normal copy.
- Still Life Collage: Arranging items on the glass like a collage before copying.
- Overprinting: Printing on the same paper multiple times to build up layers.
- Copy Overlay: Playing with the color settings on a color copier.
- Colorizing: Changing colors by adjusting the copier's settings.
- Degeneration: Copying a copy over and over, making the image slowly fade or change.
- Copy Motion: Moving an object on the glass while the copier is scanning it.
Every copier machine can also create slightly different and unique effects!
Art for Everyone
Xerox art became popular soon after the first Xerox copying machines were invented. It's often used in collage (art made by sticking different things together), mail art (art sent through the mail), and book art (books made as art). The International Society of Copier Artists (I.S.C.A.) was even started to help artists share their Xerox art and small art books by mail.
Cities like San Francisco and Rochester were important places for copy art. Rochester was known for imaging companies like Eastman Kodak and Xerox. Meanwhile, many creative artists in San Francisco used copiers to make new kinds of art. As computers became popular, copy shops also popped up everywhere. This made it easy and cheap for artists to create unique images. They could make many copies of their collages and share their work easily. Artists could also print their own books and magazines without needing a big publisher. Comic book artists found it useful to quickly reuse parts of their drawings.
Early Days (1960s–1970s)
The first artists known for making copy art were Charles Arnold, Jr., and Wallace Berman. Charles Arnold, Jr., an art teacher, made his first artistic photocopies in 1961. He used a large Xerox camera to experiment. Wallace Berman used a Verifax copier to make copies of images. He often put these images together in a grid pattern. Berman was inspired by other artists and art movements like Surrealism.
In 1970, Sonia Landy Sheridan started teaching the first course on using copiers for art. This was at the Art Institute of Chicago.
Esta Nesbitt was another early artist who experimented with Xerox art in the 1960s and 1970s. She even invented three special xerography techniques. The Xerox company supported her art research for a few years.
In 1968, artists like Carl Andre, Sol LeWitt, and Robert Morris created a famous art book called Untitled (Xerox Book).
Even though copy artists used the same machines, their art styles were very different. Artists like Ian Burn, Laurie-Rae Chamberlain, and Helen Chadwick all used photocopiers for their own unique artistic goals.
Other artists who used copiers in their art include:
- Guy Bleus
- Alighiero Boetti
- Bruno Munari
- David Hockney
- Pati Hill
- Ginny Lloyd
- Eduardo Kac
In the mid-1970s, Pati Hill did art experiments with an IBM copier. Her Xerox artwork was shown in famous museums in Paris, Amsterdam, and the US.
Art Gets Noticed
San Francisco had a very active Xerox art scene starting in 1976. The LaMamelle gallery held an "All Xerox" exhibit. In 1980, the "International Copy Art Exhibition" was also held there. This show then traveled to San Jose, California, and Japan. Artist Ginny Lloyd even made the first copy art billboard!
A gallery called Studio 718 opened in San Francisco's North Beach area. It shared space with Postcard Palace, where many copy artists sold their postcard art. This space also had a Xerox 6500 machine. Around the same time, artist Barbara Cushman sold color copy calendars at her store, A Fine Hand.
In 1980, the "Electroworks Exhibit" was held at the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum in New York. It showed over 250 examples of prints, books, and other art made by artists using copiers.
Other places also recognized copy art. Galeria Motivation in Montreal, Canada, held a copy art exhibit in 1981. PostMachina, an exhibit in Bologna, Italy, featured copy art in 1984.
In 1987, an international exhibit called "Medium: Photocopie" explored new ways artists used photocopies. A book about the exhibition was also published.
The Jaffe Book Arts Collection at Florida Atlantic University has a full collection of the I.S.C.A. Quarterlies (journals from the International Society of Copier Artists). In 2010, they hosted an exhibit of copy art by Ginny Lloyd. She also teaches workshops there about copy art history and techniques.
From 2017 to 2018, the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York showed "Experiments in Electrostatics: Photocopy Art from the Whitney’s Collection, 1966–1986." This exhibit highlighted early photocopy art.
Modern Copy Art
Copiers still help artists create new things today. For example, surrealist artist Jan Hathaway combines color xerography with other art forms. Carol Heifetz Neiman layers colored pencil through many runs of a color photocopy process. R.L. Gibson uses large-scale xerography in his works.
In 1991, filmmaker Chel White made a 4-minute animated film called "Choreography for Copy Machine (Photocopy Cha Cha)". All the images in the film were made using a Sharp photocopier. He copied hands, faces, and other body parts in sequence to create animation. He even used colored gels to add layers of color. The film has a dream-like feel and is very rhythmic. It won an award at the 1992 Ann Arbor Film Festival.
Sometimes, copier manufacturers like Xerox and Canon help artists. They might lend machines, sponsor art shows, or even pay artists to work with their copiers.
See also
- Scanography
