K L E A M c K E N N A | Automatic Earth | 2016 - 2019
Photographic rubbing. Unique gelatin silver photogram.
Automatic Earth refers to what I see as a “blue print” that exists within nature; a plan within each organism to automatically generate a particular form or pattern that is then, inevitably flawed. I approach these broken patterns within the landscape as allegories for human emotional experience. It is where the pattern breaks that an event is recorded: a draught, a trauma, an interaction, the slash of a chainsaw…. a crack in the earth. The flaws in these pre-destined forms become a record of time and of labor and they tell the story of the life that made them.
These photographic rubbings are a type of photogram made on traditional photographic fiber paper. They are hand-embossed imprints of cross-sections of trees that are made in darkness then exposed to light and in some cases collaged together. They range in size from 20x24 inches to collages that are 60x60 inches. Their concentric circles echo the form of a spider’s web, which I have worked with previously, yet rather than representing one night of labor and growth, trees hold a record of hundreds of years in their tissue. Each imperfection marks an event or change in the life of that organism and it’s environment.
