Celanese, a global and integrated producer of specialty and intermediate chemical products, is the parent firm of clarifoil, the brand and company name of a line of innovative cellulose acetate films for labels, carton windows and print lamination. Recently, the company released the news that its product had found a home outside of the traditional packaging space and that that film is being used in new and extraordinary ways in the artistic community.
Clarifoil is known for providing a wide range of cellulose acetate for a number of applications, mainly in luxury packaging. Nina rodin, a renowned artist who graduated from the famous slade school of fine art, is choosing to paint on to clarifoil acetates as well as creating large scale installations. Nina explains why working with acetate is so appealing and how it impacts her work &ldquoacetate is a translucent material which offers exceptional clarity and it doesn&rsquot distort colour like pvc. Acetate actually shares many properties and characteristics with glass. One of the most fascinating facets of acetate for me as an artist is that it remains relatively inert when acrylics are applied to it. They adhere well and dont bead.
Even after the paint has dried i can moisten it again, then edit the composition or even peel the acrylics off the acetate. I have used these properties to show my paintings on xray boxes, creating luminous compositions, glowing with colour. The only other material this would work with is glass, but this is both impractical and hazardous in the studio.&rdquo marion bauer, marketing clarifoil enthuses &ldquonina is really innovative and creates some truly stunning works of art using our materials.
Clarifoil has been impressed, we are planning to show some pieces in our new offices when they have opened&rdquo. Nina is now experimenting with large pieces of acetate, fixing 8 pieces of a1 acetate together and then painting on top. Constantly stretching her creative capabilities nina has also experimented with screenprinting photography in white, depicting a stream on one side and then painted with acrylics on the other to optimise the translucency.
