ARTIST STATEMENT
These works are from a series entitled Artificial Sweetener. This photographic series is an exploration of psychological “stickiness.” In these photographs, I exploit food materials that are largely glutinous—candies, pastries, and sugary treats—to study certain spaces of the mind that are internalized from familial experiences. These foods, often used in the household for baked goods or sweet desserts, express both excess and absence, as these particular substances are the epitome of “junk foods,” high in additives and artificial sweeteners, but provide no value to the human body, often causing it harm. This material serves as a stand-in for an inescapable, smothering stickiness of the emotional spaces I am investigating through photography. The Artificial Sweetener series is a way to visually explore and re-contextualize the shifting systems that are present within a nuclear family—to question an assumed knowledge of the past and the invented realities we often create for ourselves and for others.”
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Kelly Ciurej is an artist and photographer born and raised on Chicago’s Southside. Rooted in personal experiences, she is interested in exploring moments of self-discovery– the misalignment in thought. Through the use of photographs, performance, artificial materials, and digital printing processes, her work explores notions of feminist psychology and the myth of “paradise”. Ciurej’s work has been exhibited throughout her home base of Hawai’i in spaces including the Hawai’i State Art Museum, University of Hawai’i Art Galleries, Gallery ‘Iolani, East Hawai’i Cultural Center, and the Honolulu Museum of Art School. She has been exhibited nationally in both group and solo shows, including the Rhode Island Center for Photographic Arts, the Florida Museum of Photographic Arts, Shockboxx Gallery in Los Angeles, and BOX13 Artspace in Houston, TX, among others. Ciurej received her MFA from the University of Hawai’i at Manoa in 2017 and currently lives and works in Honolulu, Hawai’i.
© Kelly Ciurej