“Don't think about what you've left behind,” the alchemist said to the boy as they began to ride across the sands of the desert. "If what one finds is made of pure matter, it will never spoil. And one can always come back. If what you had found was only a moment of light, like the explosion of a star, you would find nothing on your return.” ― Paulo Coelho, The Alchemist

Beginning in 2016, Christopher Colville, a photographic artist in Phoenix, AZ started expanding his practice of producing light drawings on light sensitive materials using gunpowder flashes by incorporating the shadow of a ruptured bandsaw blade. This broken circle formed an image reminiscent of the ancient symbol of the Ouroboros, the mythical serpent swallowing its own tail, reborn from its own destruction. First seen in Egyptian and Greek mythology, the Ouroboros is an emblem of eternal energy appearing throughout various cultures and periods, becoming a universal image of healing and alchemy. 

Each of Colville’s works are formed by a controlled blast of gunpowder spread upon a metal disc onto which Colville has punctured holes providing aeration for the ignition. Further imbuing the work with the resonance of infinity, Colville chose to perforate the plate with a template of the star map of the Northern Hemisphere. The eruption, contained by the split serrated blade that wraps around itself in the fashion of the Ouroboros snake, leaves the teeth’s shadow formed onto the paper. The merging of materials creates a violent reaction that is then imprinted into the paper, changing the physical makeup of the gelatin, often leaving a three-dimensional relief on the surface. Beauty is born from the ashes of destruction, mirroring the dichotomy of the Ouroboros myth. Energy is immortal, and where there is death there is rebirth. 

Colville’s large scale Serpent collages engulf the walls with a repetition of the photograms echoing the geometry of the snake form. The individual unique prints are not lost in the grouping, as the size of the collages allows the viewer to focus on the detail of each work while being submersed in the entirety of the imagery. 

The works range from five to ninety-two inches wide. Colville’s dramatic range in size and sheer number of prints within the series speak to his mastery of control over such a turbulent material. Each unique work varies the interpretation of the subject matter without being repetitive. The unpredictable variable of both the black powder and the gelatin silver print together produces a striking result that gives its own embodiment of the Ouroboros tale.

The exhibition allows each viewer the autonomy to create their own experience with an interactive component of a handmade wood box containing fifty photographs. Colville’s print box creates a distinctive and immersive encounter to experience the works on a personal level. The small-scale prints are meant to be grouped together yet the arrangement is up for individual interpretation. 

For Colville, the body of work is a commentary on balance. The images are an equilibrium of violence and peace, of darkness and light, of chaos and control. While much of his lexicon fixates on an aggressive approach of work created from the gunpowder generated gelatin silver paper, the Ouroboros imagery is “a place that offers a centered return”