Paul Kopeikin Gallery presents an exhibition of color photographs by Kelli Connell from the series Double Life.
Kelli Connell’s series, Double Life, appears to document the evolving relationship between two women. By combining multiple negatives of the same model, Ms. Connell uses digital imaging techniques to create constructed realities. The model acts out various fictional scenarios, with the characters’ body language and clothing changing in each image. The work represents Ms. Connell’s investigation of identity, sexuality, and gender roles, as they shape and are expressed within intimate relationships. Through her photographs she addresses complex issues about visual rhetoric and the self. As she states in an interview in her newly released monograph:
“I’ve always seen identity as something that is very fluid and as such I usually shy away from labels altogether.
Still, a larger part of this work explores the nature of identity formation. In my own personal history, the process
of questioning my sexuality was confounding, because the conventional categories, and even the need to
categorize in the first place felt like…something being pushed on me. Meanwhile the internal experience of my
sexual and gender identity was quite natural and yet not a static thing at all. Perhaps this work is trying to figure
out why we rely on categories and labels the way we do.”
Kelli Connell
Kelli Connell was born in 1974. She grews up in Abilene, Texas. She studies phoography at University of North Texas, Denton, Texas
Kelli Connell
Double Life
Until April 14, 2012
Kopeikin Gallery
2766 S. La Cienega Blvd.
Culver City
Los Angeles, CA 90034
(310) 559-0800 tel
