a study in carbon
tanso.bar
carbon as mark, as material, as molecule — a slow gallery of the most elemental medium.
炭 — tanso, the Japanese word for carbon, charcoal.
study i.
the pressure scale
From the lightest feathered touch to the deepest saturated black, charcoal records the artist's hand with absolute honesty. There is no edit, no undo — only the mark, made and meant.
Tanso treats every entry, every essay, every annotation with the same deliberation. Each piece is mark-made — not produced.
— a value scale runs from 0 to 10. We work in the slower middle tones.
Vine charcoal · Compressed black · Willow soft
study ii.
the element
- configuration
- 1s² 2s² 2p²
- group · period
- 14 · 2
- allotropes
- graphite, diamond, graphene, fullerene, amorphous
- melting point
- 3823 K (sublimes)
- bond geometries
- sp, sp², sp³
- cosmic abundance
- 4th by mass
A single atom. Six protons. Four valences willing to bond in any direction. Every line of charcoal you have ever drawn was, at the molecular level, this same patient hexagonal lattice broken loose by friction — a fragment of mineral coaxed into becoming a mark.
— the artist and the element share a hand.
study iii.
the collection
Three rooms in the gallery. Three ways of looking at carbon.
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i.
the drawing room enter →
Studies in vine and compressed charcoal. Portraits, still lifes, the slow accretion of value.
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ii.
the laboratory enter →
Microscopy of the same charcoal, at scales from grain to lattice. Where art meets crystallography.
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iii.
the kiln enter →
Field notes from the willow grove to the fired stick. The making of the medium.
— please walk slowly. nothing is hurrying.
study iv.
the journal
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on the willow grove at first light
The willows were cut at the end of march, while the sap was still asleep in the wood. To make charcoal you must first know the tree well enough to take only the second-year shoots — the ones that will give clean, even sticks…
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graphite is just slow charcoal
A short piece on time. Graphite was charcoal once, then heat and pressure and several hundred million years arranged it into something more orderly. The mark of a 4B pencil is, in geological terms, a softer rumor of itself…
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the fixative
Why we spray. Why we still spray, even though digital scans last forever. Notes on permanence and the pleasure of held breath…
— published roughly when finished. archived after.
colophon
visit the studio
Letters by post, occasional. Notes by mail, replied to as the kiln allows. There is no shop, no list, no schedule.
set in libre baskerville, karla, kalam, and ibm plex mono.
drawn on f.5.0.e8 paper, with #1a1612 charcoal.
© tanso studio · all marks made by hand.