DETAILS

Routine Reconstruction by Krisopher Karklin
Skew Gallery
Thursday, June 17 - Tuesday, July 27

More in: Visual Arts

There’s no room for traditional photography in Kristopher Karklin’s latest exhibition, Routine Reconstruction. Karklin has transformed the medium into a method of re-creating moments, rather than simply capturing them.

“It’s about memory and process,” Karklin says of his work, currently on display at the Skew Gallery. “The main concept I deal with is memory and the idea that when you’re translating memory, whether it be through storytelling or through writing, lots of details either get added or lost in translation.”

Routine Reconstruction is classified as photography, but shooting the photo itself is only a small piece of the puzzle for Karklin, who majored in printmaking at the Alberta College of Art and Design and didn’t start learning about photography until his third year.

The artistic process further separates Karklin’s photos from tradition. What seem like straightforward photographs are actually labour-intensive composites consisting of naked human models and dioramas. But these aren’t elementary school dioramas. The expert use of everyday materials, which range from paperclips to computer screens, are combined to form an extremely realistic creation. Each one takes Karklin about a month to complete and is never any wider than about 60 cm. The model and diorama are shot separately using similar lighting techniques and then merged together through the magic of Photoshop.

So why not just find a set and shoot the model there?

“I choose to create them because I’m stemming from the idea of rebuilding a memory,” says Karklin. “Another reason I was creating these was because I was trying to capture something that looked really painterly, rather than photographic.”

Karklin is also interested in examining the relationship between the urban landscape and its occupants, particularly in private spaces. He finds this relationship to be dislocated and isolating.

The theme of isolation radiates in each piece, thanks to sparse, cold environments, a dreary colour palette and the narrative created by the human figure. In many of the pieces, the model’s face is not clearly visible. This anonymity allows viewers to create their own interpretation more freely.

Each aspect of Karklin’s composites contributes to the overall narrative, including the nudity of his models.

“I do that purposely to show the contrast in the relationship between the occupant and the space,” says Karklin. “Where the space is really cold and bare, the occupant is really organic, like bare to the bone.”

The environments are minimal in the hopes of sparking a memory and emotion in the viewer and to remove ownership of a memory. The minimalism also has autobiographical undertones. Karklin moved around a lot when he was younger, so he didn’t have an abundance of material possessions.

“They represent a time in my life,” says Karklin. “Some of my later works are recent memories, like when I was going to art school, spaces I inhabited, moments in my life that seemed important.”

Karklin believes memory distortion is natural.

“It’s only normal for human beings to slowly forget things over time and they become distorted,” he says. “Even more recent memories. As you grow older, so many things occur in one day in our busy lives, we choose not to remember certain things.”