04 Nov Mimesis: Claire A. Warden

Mimesis: Claire A. Warden

November 18 – December 12, 2015
Reception: Thursday, November 19, 6-8:00pm
Artist Talk by Claire A. Warden begins at 6:15.

Artist Statement

Mimesis is an ongoing search to understand the internal and external forces that accumulate and compound identity. When looking at these images, the urge to ask “what is it?” echoes the question, “what are you?” a question that has been directed towards me countless times. Being raised in a family with a diverse ethnic heritage has led me to reflect on the fluid, abstract nature of identity, which informs my use of photography.

I use saliva and manual manipulation as part of my photographic process, which steers the work away from the signifying functions inherent to the medium of photography. These methods are used as symbolic acts to expose the biologic and socio-cultural forces that stimulate the emergence and performance of an identity. This process produces a series of images that reveal certain truths in identity and simultaneously the inadequacies of language to describe oneself. Resembling systems of the natural sciences—microscopic, topographic and celestial—the photographs allegorize the complexity of systems that make up an individual and the perception of self.

Special thank you to our partners at the Center for Fine Art Photography for this exhibition: