K L E A M c K E N N A | Rainbow Bruise | 2020 - 2022
Photographic relief: embossed unique gelatin silver photogram, fabric dye.
Collages of photographic reliefs: unique embossed gelatin silver photograms, fabric dye, rag paper.
McKenna begins by collecting materials (found paintings, textiles and other remnants of material culture) that bear the marks and stains that accumulate over time through growth, trauma, devotion and human touch, then, in darkness, she emboss these objects into photographic paper. Raking light is cast across the resulting textures in an unruly process that subverts photography’s intended use by making touch more primary than sight. The embossed photograms made by pressure and light contain a confounding blend of evidence and fiction. These photographic reliefs then become the under-paintings onto which she apply layers of fabric dye, remaking the subjects on my own terms and in my own medium. In some cases, they are then collaged by-hand or re-photographed and further hybridized into digital collages. She try to lean-in to this moment of collapse in order to employ humor, illusion, resourcefulness and play to make new artifacts that refer to the past, but point to an imagined future.
