Raymond Meeks and Adrianna Ault, *Winter Auction*, 2019, Carbon pigment print, 14 x 11” [HxW] (35.56 x 27.94 cm) Edition 1 of 5, 2 AP. All images are courtesy of: Casemore Kirkeby/artist.

Written by: Federica Barrios Carbonell

Raymond Meeks, Adrianna Ault, Tarah Douglas, Steve Kahn, and John Divola fill the Casemore Kirkeby gallery with movement and sentiment as they individually explore the concepts of reality and change with respect to the self. Each artist examines personal feelings of angst and ignites a sense of self-examination in the audience. How do we interact with time? And how does the way we interact with the world affect us?

Raymond Meeks and Adrianna Ault, *Winter Auction #17*, 2019, Carbon pigment print, 14 x 11” [HxW] (35.56 x 27.94 cm) Edition 1 of 5, 2 AP.

Locations and the memories that come with them are the centers of Raymond Meeks’ and Adrianna Ault’s work. In the series Winter Auction, the memories and feelings evoked are created from the event, a winter auction. Each tool and item, lifeless without the push of an outside force, is thrown in the air and photographed as it comes into itself and is left to interact with the world on its own. A hammer dramatically splashes in a cloudy puddle on the dirty floor in Winter Auction (2019). The water, disrupted by the tool, creates beautiful streaks of white that race to embrace the falling object, producing an oddly intimate and familiar cinematic scene. In Winter Auction #17 (2019), a long chain dances in the air, nearly taking the shape of a person, a ballerina dancing lonesomely in an empty field, waiting to be used once the next farming season comes along.

Tarah Douglas, *Untitled (no 1-15)*, 2020 archival pigment print paper: 10 x 15 inches installation 10 x 225 inches edition of 3 + 2 AP.

Tarah Douglas displays the simple activities of life juxtaposed with the grandiosity of nature. Each task’s simplicity is overtaken by the harshness of the environment rather than what one usually associates with the activities. Walking at the park or reading in an airconditioned home, rather than climbing and sitting with no protection from the elements. The images in Douglas’s Untitled (no 1-15) (2020) mirror film stills, recalling the performance of the human experience, interacting with its environment.

Steve Kahn, *Running*, 1976/2016, archival pigment print, 9.625” x 22.5” inches (24.46 x 57.15 cm) Edition 1 of 3

Steve Kahn also plays with the idea of self and our interactions with the spaces around us. His piece Running (1976) is exhibited in the show. The triptych reads as an homage to Eadweard Muybridge’s studies of motion. Khan’s self-portrait encapsulates the deep connection between our environment and our physical and mental state. Consistent zooming out gives the illusion of speed, and the revelation of the setting puts the audience in a specific space, a recognizable space.

John Divola, *ENSO: 36 Right-handed Gestures*, 2018, 36 AZO Gelatin silver contact prints mounted on archival mat board; paper: 8 x 10 inches each; framed: 14 x 16 inches each; edition 1/4 + 2 AP.

Going along with the common motif of the body of each artist’s individual experience, John Divola creates a 36-piece photography installation showing his viewer a trace of time and space of his own making. ENSO: 36 Right-handed Gestures (2018) mirrors the normality of everyday life. The artist marked the circumference of his right arm on the wall of a different room in the same building every day around the same time. The act of repetition, of routine, is familiar to the viewer; time and space change and evolve, as do we alongside them, yet we seem to constantly fall into a scheduled lull.

John Divola, *ENSO: 36 Right-handed Gestures (Detail)*, 2018, 36 AZO Gelatin silver contact prints mounted on archival mat board; paper: 8 x 10 inches each; framed: 14 x 16 inches each; edition 1/4 + 2 AP.

Each artist interprets time, space, and what it means to interact with them in their own ways, together with curating the general notion that they are both constructed and are up for independent interpretation.

Considered Interactions can be seen at the Casemore Kirkeby gallery from April 16th to May 28th, 2022.

Photo Editor: Miller Lyle