Ayline Olukman

Like a classical painter I staged this photo series in my painting studio and outdoor locations. I see these indoor and outdoor landscapes as a space where the body meets nature and negotiates their differences and similarities. I collect objects, some unchanging, others like flowers and fruits I let rot. Perishable subjects are attractive to me because of their observable transition. Their skin become a material that I love to look at, a new texture and color appear. I use vegetation as a visual language to link still life, landscape, and portraiture. Because of the fleeting nature of these objects they become my new vision of nostalgia. I use classical art history subject matter as reference and a starting point. I create a broken and weird Renaissance. Think of `Bacchus“by Caravaggio, a boy posing with a fruit basket, the sensuality of the skin and the boys gaze, the drape, the absence of landscape in the background, we face the boy as we contemplate the imperfections and limitations of his mortal nature. I similarly juxtapose surreal, playful and slightly disturbing visions with underlying eroticism.