Amy Jenkins and Willa Nasatir
The Office of University Art Collections presents two photographs from the university collection in this month’s FOCUS exhibition: Amy Jenkins’ Untitled XXX, 1990, and Willa Nasatir’s Candy, 2017.
Jenkins’ and Nasatir’s approach to photography is multidisciplinary and their compositions function as part-still life, part-portrait, evoking a surreal otherworldly environment.
In the photographic work from her Fairytale series, Amy Jenkins explores the realm of fantasy and myth: a netherworld where the real and the imaginary coexist and illusions and reality become intertwined. Traditional still life miniature objects are combined with video backgrounds to create seductive environments where boundaries between fantasy and reality become indistinguishable. In the foreground, Jenkins presents a collection of objects which resemble a medieval still life, rich in color and texture. In the background, two nude women are rendered with a grainy black and white video image. Says Jenkins, “I’m interested in creating symbolic relationships between objects that suggest an underlying evil of fairytales – there is often a glossy beauty to fairytales but underneath that is a wicked content.”
Nasatir’s photographs begin as makeshift sculptures, quickly assembled in her studio from an array of unexpected, disparate objects ranging from decorative fans to a mannequin’s hand. She alters and combines these found objects, which she photographs and re-photographs, subjecting the surfaces to dramatic material and light effects. The resulting works are hand-manipulated images that become psychologically charged and difficult to discern. They do not tell stories; the resulting photographs call on us to create our storylines.
Mark H. Reece Collection of Student-Acquired Contemporary Art, CU1997.3.1