Klea McKenna
Automatic Earth
Klea McKenna, She (1) 2016
Photographic rubbings of a redwood tree. Collage of 2 unique gelatin silver photograms.
35 x 25 inches (88.9 x 63.5 cm), unique
Photographic rubbings of a redwood tree. Collage of 2 unique gelatin silver photograms.
35 x 25 inches (88.9 x 63.5 cm), unique
A slice of time and space
“There is the surface. Now think – or rather feel, intuit what is beyond it, what the reality must be like if it looks this way. Photographs, which cannot themselves explain anything, are inexhaustible invitations to deduction, speculation and fantasy.” Susan Sontag, On Photography
Seeing is something we do, and we evolve our visual perception by learning how to do it. The act of seeing however is precisely what we make of what we see. Klea McKenna set herself on a mission to discover if it is possible to create visual imprints of experience and to physically capture nature. And she has done so very elegantly!
Automatic Earth is a series of camera-less photographs, an intuitive exploration of human emotional experience in relation to nature. An array of patterns, shadows and textures that allow ‘seeing’ to merge with the sense of touch and space. These photographic images are transcending time fragments, open to contemplation. A consonant of small units of a captured reality that has the ability to reverse the act of touch into seeing. A thin slice of time and space.
It is a body of work that sparkles curiosity. From an observer’s point of view, the depicted subject matter still is instantly recognisable, but it leaves room for further inspection. The work invites you to look closer, look from afar, follow the wood trails and let your eye follow the circle lines and just imagine. It is work that can revive memories and feelings we have all experienced at some point in time when coming closer to nature. These unique prints are recordings of an action. Similar in principle to that of an abstract performative representation, where act marries the ritual.
With the use of simple materials, such as light-sensitive paper and handmade tools, Klea makes outdoor photographs and “photographic rubbings”. These are hand-embossed imprints of earth, concrete and cross-sections of trees - what she sees as “blueprints” that exist within nature. A process she developed over the years of making night-time photograms on location. An impression of an outdoor surface is first hand-embossed onto light-sensitive paper during the dark of night. Then it is exposed by flashlights to fix the inscribed textures.
In some cases, multiple impressions are collaged together to yield fictional forms and large-scale installations. By detaching from the conventions and limitations of traditional cameras and negatives.
vonlintel.com
Seeing is something we do, and we evolve our visual perception by learning how to do it. The act of seeing however is precisely what we make of what we see. Klea McKenna set herself on a mission to discover if it is possible to create visual imprints of experience and to physically capture nature. And she has done so very elegantly!
Automatic Earth is a series of camera-less photographs, an intuitive exploration of human emotional experience in relation to nature. An array of patterns, shadows and textures that allow ‘seeing’ to merge with the sense of touch and space. These photographic images are transcending time fragments, open to contemplation. A consonant of small units of a captured reality that has the ability to reverse the act of touch into seeing. A thin slice of time and space.
It is a body of work that sparkles curiosity. From an observer’s point of view, the depicted subject matter still is instantly recognisable, but it leaves room for further inspection. The work invites you to look closer, look from afar, follow the wood trails and let your eye follow the circle lines and just imagine. It is work that can revive memories and feelings we have all experienced at some point in time when coming closer to nature. These unique prints are recordings of an action. Similar in principle to that of an abstract performative representation, where act marries the ritual.
With the use of simple materials, such as light-sensitive paper and handmade tools, Klea makes outdoor photographs and “photographic rubbings”. These are hand-embossed imprints of earth, concrete and cross-sections of trees - what she sees as “blueprints” that exist within nature. A process she developed over the years of making night-time photograms on location. An impression of an outdoor surface is first hand-embossed onto light-sensitive paper during the dark of night. Then it is exposed by flashlights to fix the inscribed textures.
In some cases, multiple impressions are collaged together to yield fictional forms and large-scale installations. By detaching from the conventions and limitations of traditional cameras and negatives.
vonlintel.com
Marina Syrmakezi, Gold Circle Founder and Curator
Klea McKenna. Automatic Earth #10, 2016
Photographic rubbing. Unique gelatin silver photogram
24 x 20 inches (61.0 x 50.8 cm), unique
Photographic rubbing. Unique gelatin silver photogram
24 x 20 inches (61.0 x 50.8 cm), unique
Klea McKenna. Automatic Earth #5, 2016
Photographic rubbing. Unique gelatin silver photogram.
24 x 20 inches (61.0 x 50.8 cm), unique, MK 16 156
Photographic rubbing. Unique gelatin silver photogram.
24 x 20 inches (61.0 x 50.8 cm), unique, MK 16 156
Klea McKenna. Automatic Earth #3, 2016
Photographic rubbing. Unique gelatin silver photogram.
24 x 20 inches (61.0 x 50.8 cm), unique
Photographic rubbing. Unique gelatin silver photogram.
24 x 20 inches (61.0 x 50.8 cm), unique
Klea McKenna. Trinity (2), 2016
Photographic rubbing. Unique gelatin silver photogram.
24 x 20 inches (61.0 x 50.8 cm), unique
Photographic rubbing. Unique gelatin silver photogram.
24 x 20 inches (61.0 x 50.8 cm), unique
Klea McKenna. Automatic Earth #7, 2016
Photographic rubbing. Unique gelatin silver photogram.
24 x 20 inches (61.0 x 50.8 cm), unique
Photographic rubbing. Unique gelatin silver photogram.
24 x 20 inches (61.0 x 50.8 cm), unique
Klea McKenna. Automatic Earth #4, 2016
Photographic rubbing. Unique gelatin silver photogram.
24 x 20 inches (61.0 x 50.8 cm), unique
Photographic rubbing. Unique gelatin silver photogram.
24 x 20 inches (61.0 x 50.8 cm), unique
Klea McKenna. The Long Now (2), 2016
Photographic rubbings. Collage of 4 unique gelatin silver photograms, split toned with sepia/selenium.
46.5 x 41 inches (118.1 x 104.1 cm), unique
Photographic rubbings. Collage of 4 unique gelatin silver photograms, split toned with sepia/selenium.
46.5 x 41 inches (118.1 x 104.1 cm), unique
All images ©Klea McKenna
Bio
McKenna was born in Freestone, CA in 1980 and received a BA from the University of California in Santa Cruz and an MFA from the California College of the Arts. Recent exhibitions include: Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, CA; Contemporary Jewish Museum, San Francisco, CA; Heckscher Museum of Art, Huntington, NY; Museum of Photographic Arts, San Diego, CA. Public collections include: Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco; Santa Barbara Museum of Art, Santa Barbara, CA; Mead Art Museum, Amherst, MA; and the US Embassy, Republic of Suriname, Art in Embassies, US Department of State. McKenna lives and works in San Francisco.
www.kleamckenna.com
www.kleamckenna.com