Decorative Afterthoughts by Kelda Van Patten

Issue 1 49

I seek to invoke a sense of surprise or contradiction through the consideration of constructed photographs that occupy liminal spaces between artifice and truth, imagination and the real, and mimesis and the origin. The still life objects that I photograph are often found inside my home, such as cut flowers, fruit, and houseplants. I also photograph kitsch objects mined from ebay, such as artificial flowers and plastic fruit. I define kitsch in terms of its 19th-century Victorian roots, as myth or melancholic curiosities that simultaneously evoke desire and comfort while masking denial and loss. For example, I think of artificial fruit and flowers as kitsch objects that attempt to mimic the blooming beauty of nature, while virtually eliminating the process of decay from the natural world.

My photographs sometimes nod to 17th-century Dutch still-life paintings by provoking symbolic readings of the Vanitas and Memento Mori, which both reference the fragility of life. I also allude to the process of the photographic medium by incorporating gels, strobe lights, and cords. Once each still life is lit and photographed, I continue the work in a digital darkroom, such as Adobe Photoshop. The colors I use frequently relate to the stereotypically feminine, such as glittery pink tape, deep red artificial cherries, flashes of hot pink light, and layers of bright purple construction paper. I subvert these colors with torn, folded, and cut-up layers of nostalgic dusty rose velvet, deep dark shadows, and bits of blood red. These hues represent the psychological, emotional, and corporeal expressions of loss, juxtaposing the overly saturated hues that bring to mind the toxic cheeriness of trendy mass-market design, which is so often digitally enhanced with intent to conceal.

Digital transformations are endless and can just as easily be undone. My printed photographs are often cut and taped to the wall and rephotographed. In that sense, my work embodies the natural cycles of change: perpetually unfolding, and in a permanent state of suspense. Through these iterations, I both celebrate and question relationships between beauty, nature, and loss.

Kelda Van Patten (she/her) is based in Portland, Oregon.
www.keldavanpatten.com | @keldavanpatten | Nature Inside artist book available here