Between

• Main Author: Bryan, Kendal Nisson
• Format: Others
• Published: BYU ScholarsArchive 2016
• Subjects: interior space; body; control; manipulate; between; ambiguity; place
• Online Access: https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/etd/5969; https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=6968&context=etd

I feel uncertain about my place in the world and it is necessary for me to discover how I am perceived by myself and by the world by exploring interior spaces. Interior spaces are both spaces of comfort, security, and permanence as well as vulnerability, uncertainty, and transcendence. My childhood home is an important drive in my work. It has caused me to think more about space and how the places we inhabit become more than just places we live in. They are places that hide our secrets, make their mark on us, and continue to live on with us after we leave them. Interiority of the body and interiority of the space are two different things that interact and connect with each other. The body’s own interior space and the interior space that the body exists in allows me to understand how I exist in this world. Elina Brotherus says that gaining perspective of oneself is facilitated by another presence within the space and when one “projects [oneself] onto it.” In my art, I repeat my engagement with the space around me by photographing myself and becoming one within it. Being a woman, and because of cultural stereotypes and pressures forced upon women, I am aware of my body and its vulnerability. I am conscious of its vulnerability to the other objects within the space and the exposure of revealing myself to the camera. I struggle between fully showing my body and hiding my identity. I manipulate the space through my body, the objects used, and the amount of negative space shown in the photograph. I believe that my work undulates between spaces, meanings, and exists in a state of ambiguity.