Sat 4/4-Sat 5/23
Cleveland photographer Lori Kella’s work makes a viewer do a double take. Her delicate landscapes aren’t landscapes at all: they’re photos of tiny miniature landscapes she’s constructed like those fairy environments some people make in their gardens. Only she’s using them to visually and subtly offer her thoughts about how carelessly we interact with the real landscape.
Kella’s latest body of work is on display in a new show called Vanishing Shores at Photocentric Gallery on Waterloo from April 4-May 23. Sort of. While it had a “virtual” opening on April 10, it’s closed to the public through April and open by appointment only after that.
“As a native of the Great Lakes, I have returned my gaze toward our inland seas, examining the fragility and resilience of this complex ecosystem,” says Kella in her artist statement. “The resulting body of work, Vanishing Shoreline, reimagines the shoreline of Lake Erie and its tributaries in a visual homage to a horizon that has captivated me for three decades.
“The artificial landscapes, created from paper, painted plastic and translucent glycerin, record observations of different species nestled into the landscape; and the resulting photographs hint at the ephemeral nature of these environments while preserving them as an imperfect record that ponders both absence and rediscovery,” she explains. “Coupled with these grand panoramas are translucent photographic replicas of native species essential to the area. This catalogue of species becomes a visual archive of what may disappear; and these ephemeral portraits offer contemplation on what may be, or is already lost, suggesting that paper replicas may eventually be our only reference to the once grand Great Lakes.”
Sixteen-by-twenty-inch prints of the works, which despite their ominous message are hypnotically beautiful, are on sale at Photocentric’s website, along with an exhibition catalog. You can also see much of the work at her website.