Illusions: KK DePaul, Kirsten Hoving, Lisa McCarty
December 1 – 31, 2011
Opening: Saturday, December 10th, 2011, 6-9pm
Sibley Gallery
3427 Magazine Street
New Orleans, LA 70115
504-899-8182
Hours: Tue – Sat 11- 5
Group show – Alternative Photography
Talks by the artists starting at 10am on Saturday, December 10th.
KK DePaul, “Between the Lines”
“After the death of my grandmother, I discovered a box that contained clues to a horrific 80 year-old family secret. Using the objects in the box, combined with childhood memories, I was able to re-construct the story.”
Kirsten Hoving, “Night Wanderers”
“Night Wanderers is a series of photographs envisioning the cosmos. I photograph objects and nineteenth-century photographs frozen in or placed under disks of ice to create the feeling of galactic swirls of stars, galaxies and spiral nebulae.
For this series, I have been influenced not by the work of other photographers, but by the collage and assemblage art of the American artist Joseph Cornell. In the course of writing an art historical book on the artist, Joseph Cornell and Astronomy: A Case for the Stars (Princeton University Press, 2009), I became aware of the artist’s deep and abiding interest in astronomy. I also came to understand his creative process, which involved juxtaposing objects in often unexpected ways. His working method encouraged me to take risks, to experiment, and to be willing to destroy one object to create another. He also taught me to appreciate the stars.
Using ice as a still life object is always a challenging process. I partially thaw the ice to create transparent and translucent areas, then work quickly to photograph it. While I choose objects and photographs that recall earlier times (an outdated globe, old cartes-de-visite) to help remind us that star light is old light, the ice that encases them underscores the elegance and fragility of our place in the universe.”
Lisa McCarty, “Florid Interiors”
“From 2009-2010 I photographed my grandparents’ home in Arlington, Virginia, with a Polaroid Colorpack camera. Once a pristine environment characterized by its museum like composition of stately furniture, antiques, knick-knacks, and glassware their home of thirty years has gone into a state of disorder as they have aged. Everything is still in its same place, but has gone uncared for, conflicting greatly with my former vision of my grandparents and their home. In order to recreate and fully experience this sense of cognitive dissonance, I dismantle and collapse the images I have taken there via a process called emulsion lifting.
Emulsion lifts are achieved by immersing Polaroid prints in hot water, which causes the emulsion to separate from the paper backing. Once the emulsion is released, the image is reduced to a fragile translucent membrane that is malleable and skin-like. I then transfer the emulsion to watercolor paper, layering and altering multiple lifts. During this process the emulsion breaks apart, warps, and wrinkles, obscuring the image. Once combined, the organic shapes created from the remains of the images appear to be both withering and thriving.”
