‘Adverse’ exhibit uses salt print process

Brian Culbertson’s exhibition entitled “Adverse” features prescription medicine that was incorporated into the salt solution in the salt print process to create multi-layered portraits.

This exhibit will be displayed in the Janice Hardison Faulkner Gallery through April 15. Culbertson said in an artist statement that he uses his photographs to raise questions about the depersonalization in modern medicine, when prescription drugs are given out to individuals based on symptoms, regardless of differences in their physical or chemical makeup.

Culbertson is an instructor of art and art history at East Carolina University in the School of Art and Design, and at Pitt Community College. He also is an MFA graduate of the ECU School of Art and Design, which is the most comprehensive art school in North Carolina and one of the largest in the Southeast.

“I knew that I wanted to show chemical reaction through purposely contaminating my prints with prescription medications used in the treatment of anxiety, depression, etc.,” Culbertson said. “However, I was not sure at what point in the coating process I should introduce these medications. After many failed experiments that produced mostly abstract results, simply replacing the sodium chloride used in the process produced results that showed the chemical reaction on the surface while retaining some of the images photographic qualities.”

Check out this unique exhibit in the Faulkner Gallery, located on the second floor of the library, and digital display screens also explain more about the salt print process.