Carrier Shell:
Images on/in/of/and the Built Environment

Carrier Shell: Images on/in/of/and the Built Environment was the culmination of several collaborative encounters between Sonnenzimmer and artists Nikole Bouchard and Milo Bonacci. We began this ongoing exchange in 2019 while working on Waste Matters: Adaptive Reuse for Productive Landscapes (Routledge, 2021), for which Bouchard served as editor and we as publication designers and illustrators. While developing the visual and material aspects of the publication, we established and honed an iterative image making process leading to the creation of a series of abstract graphic plates used throughout the book.

For the exhibition, and as a continuation of this process, we produced a series of eight screen-prints. Titled Carrier Shell, the series furthers the considerations of the relationship between image and the built environment hinted at in our contributions to Waste Matters. Utilizing additive finishing techniques such as puff additive, overprinting, and UV varnishes, the prints ride the line of image and object, while condensing and expanding perceptions of depth. Each print was developed progressively, ending with Identity Congruence, a 13 color screen-print based on experiments in monotyping conducted with Bouchard and Bonacci over a 10 day visit to Sparkle Taffy’s print studio in June of 2021.

The exhibition was supported by a publication with contributions from Bonacci, Bouchard, and Sonnenzimmer. Carrier Shell: Images on/in/of/and the Built Environment was co-published by Sparkle Taffy and Sonnenzimmer and features essays and further image experiments extrapolating on the concerns of the exhibition.