Cara-Lynne Krebs (MFA 2013)
My work speaks of yearning for another world. My materials (ranging from food to illusionistic paint, to “clear stuff”) and modes of art making possess qualities that contradict their natures, granting passage to another realm. That realm may literally be an inaccessible or transcendently beautiful location. A world could be a location of yearning in the sense of nostalgia conjured by a childlike object. A world could be a thing’s quiet but paradoxical circumstances of existence.
Access to these worlds requires an antonym to cynicism, but I haven’t found one.
Enchantment is close.
Illusionistic representation is rich with potential for enchantment Painting, photography, and three-dimensional methods of representation differently mediate viewers’ visual and mental access. They create energy when their worlds merge and interact. Magic occurs in the liminal spaces between worlds, as it can only exist with the unknown or inaccessible. Once one gains access to the other world or completely understands, magic, and consequently desire for that access struggle to remain.
I frequently use food in my work because it encapsulates desire for other worlds both materially and socially. It offers a wealth of imagined potential for interaction. In its typical state, its textures beg to be tested-crushed, mashed, sliced, smeared, allowed to jiggle and ooze. As food loses its nutritional and gustatory functions through representation, it gains context and time. A food item represented as a physical object, say plastic display cheese, becomes a durable toy. Food seductively, transcendently depicted through photography becomes hallowed and eternal. Food represents comfort, pleasure, and existence, the most basic and exquisitely desirable qualities of all.