<\/a>Sifting through recycled magazines for materials to create her elaborate cut paper constructions is a process Kirsten Kindler calls \u201chunting and gathering.\u201d\u00a0 The Richmond-based artist collects and collates images into thematic groupings: cars, architectural details, electronic equipment, stairways and other signifiers of acquired domesticity.\u00a0 \u00a0From these miniature facsimiles of luxury, Kirsten Kindler builds intricate structures that serve as delicately fraught monuments to material culture.<\/p>\n

Carefully excised from the magazines in which they were found, the accumulated reproductions seem vulnerably thin on their own, their negative spaces extracted with a surgeon\u2019s precision.\u00a0 Likewise, their connections to one another appear impossibly fragile, although the narrow contact points are made invisibly strong through the use of adhesive film.\u00a0 \u00a0That film, which unifies the individual items into a whole, is meticulously hand-cut to allow air to flow through the large, lacelike constructions.\u00a0\u00a0 Kirsten Kindler\u2019s time intensive pieces are then hung in corners of rooms or hovering off the wall, unprotected by frames.\u00a0 Intricate cast shadows move as you approach the designs for a closer look, the slightest disturbance in the air registering on the wall, their inherent fragility whispering a reminder of the emptiness of \u2018things.\u2019<\/p>\n

Kirsten Kindler constructs an airy architecture of contradiction.\u00a0 Stairwells lead into other stairwells, open-air labyrinths of d\u00e9cor.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Equipment is piled to the point of dysfunction, amassed signifiers of wealth amounting to decorative chattel.\u00a0 Gleaming metal, wood and stone surfaces are all flattened through the photographic reproductions \u2013 forming veneers of veneers, surfaces that invite a different sort of reflection.<\/p>\n

Despite the accumulation of mismatched items, there is a sense of order and unity in Kindler\u2019s work.\u00a0 What should feel cluttered or claustrophobic instead comes off as elegant and restrained.\u00a0 Crisply cut and often arranged in a way that approximates symmetry, the parts add up to much more than the whole.<\/p>\n

From a distance, the overall effect is that of an ornamental Rorschach. It is the very openness of Kirsten Kindler\u2019s work that invites psychoanalytical readings.\u00a0 They are as much about absence as presence, recalling Lacan\u2019s statement that \u201cthe signifier is a unit in its very uniqueness, being by nature symbol only of an absence.\u201d\u00a0 The artist creates work that references ideas of dematerialization while maintaining solid footing in studio practice, an impressive contradiction.<\/p>\n

Although comprised of manmade objects, Kirsten Kindler\u2019s work has an undeniably organic quality.\u00a0 Their delicate arrangement calls to mind the preciousness of a bird\u2019s nest.\u00a0 Like the aesthetic-minded Bower Bird, the artist gathers our discarded materials, categorizes them and weaves them into something beautiful.\u00a0 Her \u2018hunting and gathering\u2019 is the start of a transformative process that turns dated, disposable goods into timeless sites for thoughtful reflection.<\/p>\n

[imagebrowser id=36]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sifting through recycled magazines for materials to create her elaborate cut paper constructions is a process Kirsten Kindler calls \u201chunting and gathering.\u201d\u00a0 The Richmond-based artist collects and collates images into thematic groupings: cars, architectural details, electronic equipment, stairways and other signifiers of acquired domesticity.\u00a0 \u00a0From these miniature facsimiles of luxury, Kirsten Kindler builds intricate structures […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2276","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-art-gallery"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/ducts.sundresspublications.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2276","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/ducts.sundresspublications.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/ducts.sundresspublications.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ducts.sundresspublications.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ducts.sundresspublications.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2276"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"http:\/\/ducts.sundresspublications.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2276\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2405,"href":"http:\/\/ducts.sundresspublications.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2276\/revisions\/2405"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/ducts.sundresspublications.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2276"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ducts.sundresspublications.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2276"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ducts.sundresspublications.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2276"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}