VILMA PIMENOFF THE DARK COLLECTION
‘The Dark Collection’ plays with the idea that an ordinary object can look like something completely different depending on the angle, lighting, and the viewer’s psychological predisposition. The series explores the process of visual perception; what happens between seeing an object and understanding what we see.
The photographs make up a ‘Wunderkammer” –like collection of things that somehow look as if they were alive, reminiscent of the feeling from childhood when waiting to fall asleep in a darkened room and the shadows started growing faces.
In order to make sense of the world we tend to interpret abstract shapes as bodies and faces. In our minds the inanimate can become somehow animated, perhaps even alive. We relate to images and objects by projecting our being and emotions onto them, and reversely by recognizing parts of ourselves in things. It is in this context that the project explores the notion of empathy in relation to vision.
Vilma Pimenoff (1980) is a Finnish artist living and working in London.
Her work is often dealing with semiotic puzzles and explores the ways in which we see and perceive the world around us. In her artwork she is equally interested in exploring cultural conventions through the study of everyday objects, by placing them slightly out of their expected context or altering their scale.
Pimenoff has a Master’s degree in Photography from London College of Communication. Her work has gained interest in numerous publications, and her work has been exhibited in places such as The Photographers’ Gallery in London.
