www.CaliKurlan.art
Artist BioCali D. Kurlan is a New York-based artist who uses photography, video, performance, and installation.
2017 MFA Fine Art Thesis Walkthrough- Cali D. Kurlan from Parsons Art, Media & Technology on Vimeo.
White Walls: iPhone Edit 01; 2016; Digital C-Print; 30 x 40 in.
A 35mm negative print of a white-walled space is overlaid by a photogram produced using the screen of the iPhone on light sensitive paper, revealing the tungsten light produced by the iPhone flash.
White Walls & iPhone Exposure 03a (Installation view); 2016; Digital C-Print; 24 x 30 in.
Pedestal Edit: Flash 02; 2016; Digital C-Print; 30 x 40 in.
Chairs Installation (Installation detail); hand-painted found chairs with atomized alkyd paint, glossy pigment print; Dimensions vary
www.chairsinstallation.com (Performance detail); 2016
One of a series of performances choreographed within the www.chairsinstallation.com storefront installation to activate the space and to conduct interaction with passerby spectators rendering complex the interaction with a concealed art within the public space.
www.chairsinstallation.com
An un-enterable storefront installation of a series of 8 vinyl prints adhered to the street view window in correspondence to 8 chairs of the same color, hand painted with atomized, alkyd paint.
www.chairsinstallation.com is a project that existed as a temporary, un-enterable storefront in the Flatiron District, NYC. Inspired by Ansel Adams Zone System for correcting Black and White Photography, this installation investigates varying levels of reflectivity, adhering eight vinyl prints inside of the street view window. Within the storefront space were eight chairs hand-painted with atomized alkyd paint of the same color as the print and was the site of various performances during the duration of the installation. Strategically in a public sphere, the interaction extended beyond the physical presentation exploring alternative methods of engagement with the public, i.e. www.chairsinstallation.com.
Photoshop White Wall 02
Photoshop White Wall 02 from Cali D. Kurlan on Vimeo.
In an age of digital excess, where images are as ubiquitous as smartphones and the camera they carry, my work expresses my current condition within a reality configured by and consisting of pixels. My work advocates that this reality cannot be understood without photography, printing and historical techniques that superseded digital technologies but have veered from their founding intentions.
Using photography, video, performance, and installation, I consider representation through multiple registers from the apparatus used to produce images to modes of exhibition. My work returns image making back to the eye. I call for a productive visibility of the apparatus.
Beginning in the darkroom, I use analogue and digital methods to collide photographic processes. I still make photographs today using analogue technology because it gives me space to react and make, rather than simply take photographs, which inevitably circulate digitally, within the nexus of new technologies. I am driven to return the body, its political presence and identity, into the image driven reality we live in today.
In White Walls: iPhone Edit 01, for example, I photographed a white-walled space with 35mm film. A photogram capturing the screen of the iPhone exposes a tungsten burn on light-sensitive paper. The light, seemingly produced by the flash, is scanned and overlaid on the negative in place of the art object. Photoshop effects emphasize the variety of the white-wall on a formal level in direct conversation to the iPhones presence. This ongoing series renders visual the iPhone as not only an image-making device that captures, but also points to its mediating presence as it conditions the experience of viewing art objects and the after effect of pushing these images into the ether.