Klea McKenna

Rainbow Bruise
Klea McKenna
Cave Painting, 2021
Unique photographic relief (gelatin silver photogram,
embossed impression of a vintage oil painting, fabric dye)
49 x 41”

Rainbow Bruise 

​Gold Circle is pleased to present a Q&A with American artist Klea McKenna, highlighting her most recent work 'Rainbow Bruise', currently exhibited at EUQINOM Gallery in San Francisco. 

​At a time when our world goes through profound political, environmental and cultural change, Klea McKenna embraces the collapse that has marked our current moment and produces a soulful body of work that reflects on both personal and collective fragmentation and erasure, followed by glimmers of hopeful reinvention. Rainbow Bruise suggests a new visual language, one that marks our place in time eloquently.

​Can you tell us what inspired you to create this new body of work ‘Rainbow Bruise’?


​I was inspired by a game I play with my kids, which led to a lens through which to make art. On our walks along the scrappy edges of our urban landscape, we pretend we are archaeologists from the distant future looking for artifacts from the present. We wonder which relics of this moment will be left in our wake and how our descendants might interpret them? This question feels like a sanctuary. It’s a generous reminder of our impermanence and of how long time is and how small now is. Through this lens, everything becomes an artifact loaded with meaning. And the sense that we are already living amongst the ruins of America becomes a source for regeneration rather than despair. That might sound dramatic, but it’s been a rough time for parenting young kids and I’ve found that this archaeological fantasy is a way to find perspective and creativity within entropy. 
​
Klea McKenna
Dig 1, 2022
Collage of unique photographic reliefs
​(embossed gelatin silver photograms, fabric dye, rag paper)
60 x 45”

There is a poetic irony in the title… Is this something that the work aspires to convey?


​The title “Rainbow Bruise” is a metaphor for post-traumatic growth; the unexpected transformation that can happen in the wake of trauma (personal or collective). And yes, I employ humour, play, resourcefulness and illusion to depict this arc of collapse, fragmentation and reinvention. Despite the heavy undertones, this work is actually really fun and playful. 
​

Is ‘Rainbow Bruise’ a continuation of your last body of work ‘Generation’?

​
No. In making Generation I was beholden to cultural objects and their histories and that required a lot of research and respect for their origins. Rainbow Bruise is much more subjective and really about my own experience of this moment in time. I gave myself a lot of permission in making this work, both in terms of subject matter and in how I used my materials. That said, there is continuity in the techniques. Both these bodies of work are based in photographic reliefs (photograms made through embossing materials into the photo paper) but in Rainbow Bruise I am also painting, cutting, collaging, rephotographing… It has been very liberating to allow myself to mix all these different methods and aesthetics.
​
​Klea McKenna
Rainbow Bruise 6, 2021
Unique photographic relief 
(embossed gelatin silver photogram, fabric dye)
23 x 19
​Klea McKenna
Fossil Record 1, 2022
Collage of unique photographic reliefs
​(embossed gelatin silver photograms, fabric dye)
42 x 36”

You employ a variety of found materials and collage, married up with your signature photogram techniques, in this series. Can you describe the process of creating these works and what led you to develop this practice?

​
I begin by collecting materials that bear the marks and stains that accumulate over time through growth, damage, devotion and human touch. In this case I worked with old paintings and canvases that I found at flea markets, some textiles and small objects, and plants that I foraged in my neighbourhood. Then, in darkness, I emboss these objects into photographic paper and cast raking light across the resulting textures to make a photographic image made by pressure. These ‘photographic reliefs’ then become the underpaintings onto which I apply layers of fabric dye, remaking the paintings on my own terms and in my own medium. In some cases, they are then cut-up, collaged by hand or re-photographed and further hybridized into digital collages. This multi-step process mirrors the subject matter: leaning into collapse, erasure, fragmentation and then rebuilding from the ruins of the past to make new, hybrid forms. 
​
Klea McKenna
Fossil Record 2, 2022
Collage of unique photographic reliefs 
(embossed gelatin silver photograms, fabric dye)
42 x 36”
Klea McKenna
Fossil Record 3, 2022
Collage of unique photographic reliefs
​(embossed gelatin silver photograms, fabric dye, rag paper)
24 x 20”

There is a sense of something lost and found projected through the layers of collage in the works - almost like a journey of rediscovery. Is this a reference to the changes we have all experienced in the last two years at a societal level, or is there a more personal story behind the work?


​I’m glad you see that in it. Yes, I am responding to the collective crisis of the last couple years and also to personal ones. Two really violent traumas happened to women in my family during this time and it’s been a big part of my experience. That sense of being shattered and reformed is visible in the forms and patterns I am working with.  
​
Klea McKenna
Rainbow Bruise 11, 2021
Unique photographic relief
(embossed gelatin silver photogram, fabric dye)
23 x 19”

Can you provide some insight about the representations of femininity and motherhood in the series?


​Yes, in making the twenty digital collages in this series, which are a subset of the larger body of work, the female body emerged from the shapes and patterns I was working with in the physical collages. It is a nod to the early human technologies that enabled the creation of effigies like the Venus of Willendorf. However these icons are based on artifacts of our era: the shapes of unfolded boxes and the packaging of consumer goods, which (through slight manipulation) resemble hands, nipples and vulvas. They reflect my experience of “mothering through the soft-apocalypse” and are intended to appear both irreverent and sacred. It has been a very long time since I have used figures in my work and it felt both silly and powerful to do this now.
​ 

The rise and impact of technology, being what mostly kept us connected and functioning during the last two years, has been inescapable. Is there a link behind that and the decision to make the work available as both physical and digital pieces?


​I am a very analogue artist and had even avoided digital printing in my work, aside from making books. However, there have been ideas I have shelved simply because I don’t like the material output required. Making images that are intended to exist solely on-screen as digital images bypasses that issue and was intriguing to me. It allowed me to rephotograph my analogue source material as the objects that they are and bring depth and shadows, and shifts in scale into the collages. Photography has always been uniquely tied to changes in technology and as an artist I think it’s my job to question, experiment, and tease out the distinct strengths and possibilities of these mediums. And yes, it is a way of acknowledging the shifting chasm we currently navigate between analogue and digital life. 
​
Klea McKenna
Rainbow Bruise 21, 2022
Unique photographic relief
(embossed gelatin silver photogram, fabric dye)
23 x 19”
Klea McKenna
Rainbow Bruise 20, 2022
Unique photographic relief
(embossed gelatin silver photogram, fabric dye)
23 x 19”
Klea McKenna
Rainbow Bruise 22, 2022
Unique photographic relief
​(embossed gelatin silver photogram, fabric dye)
23 x 19”

How do you see the relationship between your physical and digital works evolving? Is the emergence of NFTs a force that will influence the way you produce future work?


​That remains to be seen, who knows how it will evolve in the future, I just know that I want to remain open-minded and adaptable. I currently see NFTs as a tool for creative and economic experimentation.  Though the market is unstable and troubled, there is a lot of interesting discussions happening in that space, people are questioning the status quo and shaking things up.  Personally, I became curious about NFTs because of my interest in artist labour rights and resale royalties for artists. It can be a testing ground for different models and practices. 
​

What are the key influences in your life and what inspires you as an artist?

​
That’s such a big question. My process has always been driven by the possibilities and limitations of my medium: analogue photographic materials and light, that is my north star.  However, in recent years, I have incorporated other techniques from printmaking, painting, collage, textiles to make work that is ever-more wild and unlikely. I want to express a sense of deep time, feminine experience, rage and beauty. Is that too much to ask?
​
Exhibition view at EUQINOM Gallery, 2022

To view Klea McKenna's 'Rainbow Bruise' contact
​ EUQINOM Gallery


EUQINOM Gallery
1295 Alabama Street
San Francisco
CA 94110

euqinomgallery.com
Rainbow Bruise: Studio Visit with artist Klea McKenna

Bio

​Klea McKenna (born 1980, Freestone, CA) is a visual artist who also writes and makes films. She is known for cameraless photography and her innovative use of light-sensitive materials. Her work is held in several public collections, including SFMOMA, LACMA, Getty Museum, Santa Barbara Museum of Art, the US Embassy collection, the Mead Art Museum, Museum of Fine Arts Boston and The Victoria and Albert Museum in London. She studied art at UCLA, UCSC and California College of the Arts. Klea is the daughter of renegade ethnobotanist, Kathleen Harrison and psychedelic philosopher, Terence McKenna. She lives in San Francisco with her partner and their young children.

www.kleamckenna.com

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