Kayl//Statement

I make still lifes.

I aim to decode our relationship to objects, seeking why they may carry associations of attraction and repulsion. Each item I work with has an inherent relationship to me, but also shares a separate connotation with the viewer. Therefore by isolating and depicting each object, I prompt the audience to transform them through the projections of their associations.

I intend not only to compel the audience to make free associations with objects, but also to spark a conversation about the act of taking a photograph. The viewer’s experience is vital to the photograph being able to support itself outside of the studio. When a conversation is sparked around my work, I feel as if I have reached some sort of goal, especially when that discourse branches into many different association “exercises” that reach out into pop culture, history and specific comparisons. Though I am intrinsically hinting at specific historical or photographical discourse, I am always fascinated when the mind of the viewer chooses to take them in a different direction. I mean to create imagery that works as a loose narrative that forces the audience to interact with it through contemplation. I hope that looking at my photographs initiates a peregrination of sorts, a type of image that creates a rambling stream of conscious thinking. It is a very essential part to my work that it is completed in this way by the viewer, and speaks to me about what taking a photograph can mean.

My photographs propose to raise questions not only about the objects themselves, but also about the photographer’s process in choosing and arranging these objects. Through the introduction to the artist’s studio, a conversation about the act of taking a photograph can also come into play. I attempt to be present within my work without actually taking pictures of my body. Therefore, I try to remind the viewer of the space in which the photograph was taken, and challenge them to ask under what circumstances the shutter was pushed.

I am extremely interested in my historical placement in the genre of still life art. I am constantly asking myself questions. What does it mean to make still lifes today? What does it mean to photograph still lifes, instead of painting them as the masters did? Where am I situated in the history of the genre? Why do I feel the need to continue the traditions of the genre? How do I add a new discourse to the many already surrounding still life? I intend to continue using historical still life tropes to perform new ideas that ultimately surround the genre. I am uninterested in transcending the genre, but aim to ground myself completely and fully within the still life history in order to burrow my way deeper into its meaning and importance. There is a reason a specific genre proceeds in art through generations; I intend to continually question why still life has existed for so long a period.

The photographs I make must be abstract enough to remain both objective and familiar simultaneously.