In her series Ecstasy of the Vision Machines, Noelle Mason transforms x-radiographs made by museum conservation teams through the process of cyanotype. These images reveal hidden structures, buried histories, and the material construction of artworks that are normally inaccessible to the viewer. Originally created as tools for conservation and research, the x-rays become images of remarkable beauty and mystery.
What interests me in Mason’s work is her ability to transform scientific documentation into poetic inquiry. Through the cyanotype process, these invisible layers emerge as luminous blue apparitions, existing between revelation and concealment.
Blue Virgin reveals the network of nails holding together a medieval wooden Madonna. The resulting image evokes both the body of the Virgin and the crucified body of Christ, while the deep cyanotype blue recalls the long tradition of Marian imagery, where the Virgin’s blue cloak represents purity, divinity, wisdom and royalty.
Blue Venus exposes a hidden double portrait beneath Venus with a Mirror. The work becomes a meditation on representation itself, connecting painting, photography, and the mechanisms through which images are constructed, concealed, and ultimately revealed.