Dutch Week: Alexandra Brand (Blog Review 8)

Alexandra Brand’s Transitory Still Life is a series of still life photography reminiscent of Dutch Golden Age oil paintings. Though beautiful in detail and light, the works juxtapose man made with Nature in a way that turns classical aesthetics into something more unorthodox. Brand composes a new reality through her unexpected combinations of objects which reflect the beauty in every day life. These new realities give new contexts and meanings to the objects and their interactions. Her use of color, texture, and composition create a dreamlike sense of mystery which adds to strangeness of these works. 

“What I find interesting is when two different objects clash in material, but go together in color. In this way, a duality arises. That creates a strange atmosphere that I like…The contrast between [organic material and artificial objects] creates are alienating feeling.”

Brand’s process is greatly intuitive, pairing objects when they feel right and interesting together. I find this very interesting, because I am working with found still lives. Instead of creating that which is strange and interesting, I am seeking it out. This is conceptually quite different from creating surrealist works like Brand’s. I hope to distort the world by over-examining the everyday and seeing the relationships that truly exist between natural and artificial.

Link to the article: http://lenscratch.com/2018/10/dutch-week-alexandra-brand/