November 2013

Unnatural Histories

Inherently, the photograph is a source of information. It is a representation of the world at a specific moment in time. We take for granted that this information is truth, that it is a confirmation of reality. Photography allows the coexistence of nature and artificiality to reflect both our understanding and estrangement in the world, bringing the unknown into focus and putting what we think we know into question.

In a world of immediacy and instant gratification, things need to be eye-catching, bold, and obvious to be understood. As nature becomes more commonplace through an oversaturation of images, it is increasingly difficult to be surprised by the beauty of the natural world. We now require things to be unnaturally beautiful in order to take our breath away. Unnatural Histories highlights the tension between fiction and documentation through constructed environments and the objects that inhabit them. Kelley seeks blurred lines between the real and the unreal, and the points where these two worlds intersect. In this body of work she has applied artifice to natural objects, and sometimes to artificial objects that mimic the natural. The application of gold in various forms is an over the top gesture to draw attention to natural beauty, create a spectacle of nature, and perhaps even to assign value to waning preciousness. By adding superfluous attributes, she manipulate these objects until they become relics of a false natural history, teetering on a line between the familiar and the unfamiliar.

Chandi Kelley graduated with a BFA in photography from the Corcoran College of Art and Design in 2004. She was the recipient of a Young Artist Grant from the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities in 2009, which led to her first solo exhibition. From 2010 to 2012 she was a member of the DC Arts Center artist collective, Sparkplug. She has presented her work at the Ullens Center for Contemporary Art in Beijing, and is in the permanent collection of the U.S. Embassy in Malta, as well as in private collections throughout the U.S. She is a Co-Founder and Administrator of the artwork subscription service, Project Dispatch, and Co-Founder of Outer Space. She has served on the Publishers Exhibition Committee for Fotoweek DC, as Artist Nominator for the 2012 Transformer Auction at the Corcoran Gallery of Art, and currently serves on the Visual Arts Committee and the Board of Directors at the DC Arts Center. She lives and works in Washington, DC.

Visit Kelley’s website at chandikelley.com.