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<\/a>Joan Kaufman, Surface Tension II, 2017, installation view at Lonsdale Gallery<\/p>\nThis current body of work is an extension of the artist\u2019s exploration of anthropocentric matters that have persisted throughout her distinct oeuvre. Using the photograph as her primary medium, Kaufman\u2019s kaleidoscopic work resembles images of a subterranean landscape removed from any real-world referent. Shot primarily in a South African forest, these artworks are repeatedly stripped of denotation through a rigorous studio process that involves textile screens and alternative lighting techniques as a means of manipulating her source material. This insistent trickery deftly recalls Man Ray\u2019s fascinating studio experiments, as well as Stan Brakhage\u2019s celluloid mutations. Furthermore, a series of photographs that are lined in procession in the upper gallery recall decorated friezes on Greek temples from antiquity, inviting historical iconography into her modern abstractions. Kaufman\u2019s photographic interventions transform her organic subject matter into alien images of biomorphic proportions. Large root systems that comprise her Roots and Radicles <\/em>series resemble arteries of a fantastical creature, while the figures present in the Night Procession <\/em>sequence are given moth-like appendages.<\/p>\n As a viewer moves throughout the gallery space, it becomes evident that the artist approaches her socially conscious body of work in a more symbolic manner. While artists such as Olafur Eliasson and Naziha Mestaoui wear their activist tendencies on their proverbial sleeves, Kaufman allows her art to elicit a more contemplative response. Her photographs do not immediately confront; but instead, slowly percolate throughout a viewer\u2019s consciousness as they slowly digest the contextual implications hidden throughout these compositions. While it may not seem obvious at first, when considering the human activity involved in creating these pieces, a viewer will begin to find a correlation between the artist\u2019s anthropocentric concerns and these unique images.<\/p>\n<\/a>Joan Kaufman, Roosts and Radicles 1, 2017, C-print, 17 x 22 inches<\/p>\n<\/a>Joan Kaufman, Roosts and Radicles 3, 2017, 13 x 18 inches<\/p>\n<\/a>Joan Kaufman, Roosts and Radicles 12, 2017, C-print, 40 x 60 inches<\/p>\n