I spent all weekend trying to remember Kim Keever's name. I remembered his images, but I had no idea where he showed, or how to find him. I kept googling things like "large-format aquarium images", and it finally worked. In any case, I was thinking of Keever last week when I posted the Chilean lightning storms, which reminded me of the Hudson River School painters.
And Keever's images are nothing if not Hudson Rivery; not surprisingly, he started off as a painter. I love the craftiness of this work. I remember being entranced as a kid by swirling food coloring in water, and these feel that way to me. I find some of the images much more striking than others, but the whole idea of these worlds being created in that aquarium makes them all interesting. I found an interview with Keever on the NY Arts Magazine site; excerpts are below. You can see more Keever work at Kinz, Tillou+Feigen.
Fallen Tree
I used to step out the back door of my house in Virginia and look across a beach and tidal estuary with pine trees and marshes and ocean water spreading out to what seemed like infinity to the other side of an estuary called the Machipongo Shore. I was mesmerized. It was much later that I felt mesmerized by the paintings of Albert Bierstadt, among others. He seemed to capture that feeling of the beauty of nature for its own sake and the limitless quality of looking out across a vast landscape. Since I realized that he was an artist who was certainly not accepted historically into the realm of conceptual art, it was more of a feeling of guilt that kept me from appreciating the work even more. I very much wanted to be part of the higher echelons of the art world and if I went around saying I liked Bierstadt, I would most certainly have been viewed askance since conceptual art has been so overwhelmingly powerful for so long. One dare not go against this idea or be relegated to being called an academic artist.
I used to step out the back door of my house in Virginia and look across a beach and tidal estuary with pine trees and marshes and ocean water spreading out to what seemed like infinity to the other side of an estuary called the Machipongo Shore. I was mesmerized. It was much later that I felt mesmerized by the paintings of Albert Bierstadt, among others. He seemed to capture that feeling of the beauty of nature for its own sake and the limitless quality of looking out across a vast landscape. Since I realized that he was an artist who was certainly not accepted historically into the realm of conceptual art, it was more of a feeling of guilt that kept me from appreciating the work even more. I very much wanted to be part of the higher echelons of the art world and if I went around saying I liked Bierstadt, I would most certainly have been viewed askance since conceptual art has been so overwhelmingly powerful for so long. One dare not go against this idea or be relegated to being called an academic artist.
Winter 18
Turtle Skull Rock
That said, it was more of an accident that the miniature sets I photographed in the water turned out to be more like Hudson River school paintings. But it was certainly a huge break for me as an artist since now I was "painting" model landscapes in an aquarium. Since I was putting paint of different colors in the water it became truer still. The gift in all of this was that here I was making retro-paintings in a conceptual way through photography. I had accidentally managed to combine the past and present in terms of art history. Through photography I was able to realize 19th-century landscape painting combined with 20-21st century conceptual art. Though I admit that this all came about more by accident than design, it has always felt like a great accomplishment to me.
Forest 83c
Turtle Skull Rock
That said, it was more of an accident that the miniature sets I photographed in the water turned out to be more like Hudson River school paintings. But it was certainly a huge break for me as an artist since now I was "painting" model landscapes in an aquarium. Since I was putting paint of different colors in the water it became truer still. The gift in all of this was that here I was making retro-paintings in a conceptual way through photography. I had accidentally managed to combine the past and present in terms of art history. Through photography I was able to realize 19th-century landscape painting combined with 20-21st century conceptual art. Though I admit that this all came about more by accident than design, it has always felt like a great accomplishment to me.
Forest 83c
Acid Rain
My early work in the aquarium involved plaster models of mountains arranged into a landscape, the tank filled with water, various gel covered lights and colored liquid paint dispersed into the water to make cloud effects. The back of the tank was covered with translucent Mylar and more lights were shining through this layer to create a sky effect. Recently I have been working with a larger (200 gallon) tank and have constructed a relatively large table in back of the tank. I place various items (including miniature model trees) on the table and in the tank. From the top of the tank in back, I have suspended a large sheet of translucent mylar sloping down towards the back of the table but suspended somewhat above it. Various puffs of cotton are attached to the mylar to look like cloud banks. Lights shine upward from beneath the back side of the table so that I get various lighting effects similar to a sky with the sun low on the horizon. The back surface of the tank is left uncovered so that from the front the view through the water in the tank makes cotton cloud formations and table top items visible. The other elements of water and gel covered lights and paint in the water remain the same.
West 35aa
My early work in the aquarium involved plaster models of mountains arranged into a landscape, the tank filled with water, various gel covered lights and colored liquid paint dispersed into the water to make cloud effects. The back of the tank was covered with translucent Mylar and more lights were shining through this layer to create a sky effect. Recently I have been working with a larger (200 gallon) tank and have constructed a relatively large table in back of the tank. I place various items (including miniature model trees) on the table and in the tank. From the top of the tank in back, I have suspended a large sheet of translucent mylar sloping down towards the back of the table but suspended somewhat above it. Various puffs of cotton are attached to the mylar to look like cloud banks. Lights shine upward from beneath the back side of the table so that I get various lighting effects similar to a sky with the sun low on the horizon. The back surface of the tank is left uncovered so that from the front the view through the water in the tank makes cotton cloud formations and table top items visible. The other elements of water and gel covered lights and paint in the water remain the same.
West 35aa
Last of All I Knew
Western Spaces
Less than Strangers
Before I started using a fish tank in my work, I was working with elaborate tabletop models, but it always seemed like something was missing. I couldn't get any kind of atmosphere. This made the first work look like what it was, a photograph of a collection of plaster mountains. I tried enclosing several of the models with clear plastic and started placing lit cigarettes within the space to get some atmosphere. This worked to a certain extent, but it never really had the feel of clouds. The result was more like fog. Another major memory as a child was living so far out in the country there were few modern amenities. My dad would fill a glass with water and add canned milk to it. Beautiful white clouds would disburse in the water and though it didn't taste that good the visual thrill made it go down easier. It eventually dawned on me that an aquarium filled with water and a little paint would give the appearance of a real atmosphere. After all, the landscape we look out upon is mainly influenced by water vapor in terms of the distance to the horizon line. What is water but highly compressed atmosphere?
Palm 57
Less than Strangers
Before I started using a fish tank in my work, I was working with elaborate tabletop models, but it always seemed like something was missing. I couldn't get any kind of atmosphere. This made the first work look like what it was, a photograph of a collection of plaster mountains. I tried enclosing several of the models with clear plastic and started placing lit cigarettes within the space to get some atmosphere. This worked to a certain extent, but it never really had the feel of clouds. The result was more like fog. Another major memory as a child was living so far out in the country there were few modern amenities. My dad would fill a glass with water and add canned milk to it. Beautiful white clouds would disburse in the water and though it didn't taste that good the visual thrill made it go down easier. It eventually dawned on me that an aquarium filled with water and a little paint would give the appearance of a real atmosphere. After all, the landscape we look out upon is mainly influenced by water vapor in terms of the distance to the horizon line. What is water but highly compressed atmosphere?
Palm 57
Ocean 28
Stumble Upon
Wow. As a creator of constructed images I am extremely impressed. Jealous, even. Thanks so much for sharing this work.