a series of 5 photographs, including 2 diptychs
Cibachrome print face-mounted to Plexiglas and back-mounted to black Plexiglas
20" x 30" (diptychs: 20" x 61")
edition of 5, 2 APs
image above: Reach #1
image above: Reach #4
Reach is a performance photo series that appropriates 19th century formal concerns with the sublime, and the use of landscapes in British painting at the time (the Pre-Raphaelites were a large impact on me when I lived and studied in London at the Tate). From a contemporary perspective, I am interested in addressing the reliance on communication technologies and the "always on" phenomenon with which they have changed the rules of social engagement. With all of this connectivity, are we really "connecting," on emotional, visceral levels? The series also comes from my examination of texts by Julia Kristeva, Lacan, and, importantly, Roland Barthes, concerned with the impossibility of connecting with others at all; are we always just talking through another to talk to ourselves, in order to address the anxiety of confirming our own existence? How deep can the connection, with others, with ourselves, truly reach? - Kathryn Cornelius, 2006