Entangled: New Work by Kalee Appleton

Exhibition Dates: March 21, 2023 — July 15, 2023

This body of work blurs the line between drawing, sculpture and photography, while challenging the traditions of conventional photography through exploration of materiality and technique. This work explores the complicated relationship of society and the land by displaying visual platitudes of idealized depictions of landscapes and floral elements. By controlling and restricting the physical frame to a gesture, a mark reminiscent of a photoshop post-production brush stroke, digitally manipulated landscape imagery and floral imagery is manifested into a physical object that wavers from a flat 2D photograph to a 3D object. The unframed pieces are results of a smart algorithm, content awareness, designed to fill an empty space with that of the imagery in which it surrounds. Together, these pieces examine the digital nature of the altered photographic landscape as a repeated or obviously falsified image. This digital-ness is transferred to the physical realm through the display within irregularly shaped wooden frames that contradict the materiality of what is typically associated with a solid wooden structure and creates a sense of cohesion between natural and virtual motifs.

—Hilliard Art Museum