Kelli Connell @ Photo - Eye Gallery | Blog

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Kelli Connell @ Photo – Eye Gallery

May 29th, 2012 by fstop

Double Life

Reception: June 1, 2012 4-6 pm

Kelli Connell’s series, Double Life, appears to document the evolving relationship between two women. By combining multiple negatives of the same model, Connell uses digital imaging techniques to create constructed realities. The model acts out various fictional scenarios, with the characters’ body language and clothing changing in each image. The work represents Connell’s investigation of identity, sexuality, and gender roles, as they shape and are expressed within intimate relationships. Through her photographs she addresses complex issues about visual rhetoric and the self. As she states in an interview in her newly released monograph:

“I’ve always seen identity as something that is very fluid and as such I usually shy away from labels altogether. Still, a larger part of this work explores the nature of identity formation. In my own personal history, the process of questioning my sexuality was confounding, because the conventional categories, and even the need to categorize in the first place felt like… something being pushed on me. Meanwhile the internal experience of my sexual and gender identity was quite natural and yet not a static thing at all. Perhaps this work is trying to figure out why we rely on categories and labels the way we do.”

kelliconnell.com

www.photoeye.com

Location: New Mexico, Santa Fe Type:

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