Narrator: Whitten made this work using the toner from early photocopying machines made by Xerox.
Artist, Jack Whitten: Xerox Corporation gave myself and, I think, four other artists grant money, and all they wanted from us is to interact with their engineers and play with their equipment. That’s all they told us. They brought us up to Rochester, and we stayed up there for like a day or so. After that, they said, “Whatever you want to take back home, equipment, feel free.” So I jumped on the chance. I brought a ton of stuff back, and in particular, the toner, which is a dry powder.
Narrator: Whitten applied toner directly to the paper with a flat scraper blade. The loose powder was so sensitive that even the slightest movement could scatter it, producing random marks and stains. Through experimentation, Whitten discovered he could fix his powder drawings using heat lamps, mirroring the mechanical process of a photocopier.
Archival audio courtesy of The Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution