On Tuesday, July 19, 2022, Joseph Gallivan interviews photographer Kelli Connell about her show “Double Life, 20 Years” which is on now at Blue Sky Gallery through July 30. “Double Life” shows a relationship as a domestic drama shot over 20 years with one model playing two women.
Connell talks about posing a model so that she looks like two women in a relationship, the value of natural light with medium format camera work, and the concept of one person playing different roles in life.
This show was recorded on July 15, 2022, with Zoom video conferencing software and engineered by KBOO volunteer Ray Bodwell.
From the press release:
Double Life, 20 Years
July 9 - 30, 2022
Blue Sky is pleased to announce Double Life, 20 Years, an exhibition of photographs by Kelli Connell.
The large-scale, color photographs in Double Life appear to document the lives of two women in a relationship, when actually these images are digitally created montages of the same model, Kiba Jacobson, seen doubled as she plays both characters in each scenario. Using the computer as a tool to create a believable situation is not that different from accepting any photograph as an object of truth, or by creating a story about two people seen laughing or quarreling in a restaurant. This work is an honest representation of the fluidity of the self in regards to decisions about intimate relationships, sexuality, gender, family, belief systems and lifestyle options.
The project’s multi-year span opens up new dialogues about women and aging and explores polarities of identity such as the masculine and feminine psyche, the irrational and rational self, and the motivated and resigned. By combining multiple images of the same model in each image, the dualities of the self are defined through body language and clothing worn. The importance of these images lies in the representation of interior dilemmas portrayed as an external object: a photograph. Through these images, viewers are presented with constructed realities that reveal complicated truths.
In-Person Conversations with Kelli Connell, Nancy Floyd & Natalie Krick, Saturday, July 23, 1 PM
https://www.blueskygallery.org/exhibitions/archives/2022/kelli-connell
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Joseph Gallivan has been a reporter since 1990. He has covered music for the London Independent, Technology for the New York Post, and arts and culture for the Portland Tribune, where he is currently a Feature Writer. He is the author of two novels, "Oi, Ref!" and "England All Over" which are available on Amazon.com
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