SF Camerawork presents a pop-up series of lens-based projects by artists creatively responding to our current state of quarantine, curated by artist, curator and SFC member Victoria Mara Heilweil.
Victoria Mara Heilweil: I am truly inspired by Klea McKenna’s fierce need to create photographs, and stay sane, as a working artist and mother of two small children during the quarantine. She has replicated her practice of cameraless photograms using a non-photographic material, watercolor inks, as her emulsion, and the sun for exposure. With her Gesture series, Klea uses handkerchiefs as negatives, an object historically connected to personal health and hygiene – to caring for oneself - but also a symbol of compassion for others. Her technique of creating sun-prints in her front windows is excruciatingly slow and unpredictable. It is an experiment in duration and patience that reflects the current collective experience of waiting, watching and learning to exist in uncertainty. She is sharing her technique and experience of making this work in a process journal on her website.
Klea McKenna is a visual artist who creates photograms, photo-reliefs, photo-rubbings and video, using materials such as vintage textiles, cross sections of trees and rain. She is both a SFC member and donor to the annual SFC Auction. Klea is represented by Euqinom Gallery in San Francisco and Gitterman Gallery in New York. You can view more of Klea’s process @klea_mckenna, or on her website, www.kleamckenna.com/GESTURE-in-quarantine. Gesture is available for pre-order and she is donating 10% of sales to the SF Homeless Prenatal Program.
