K L E A M c K E N N A   |   Generation   |   2017 - 2019

Unique photographic relief. Photogram on gelatin silver fiber paper. 

Photography, throughout its short history, has been modeled after the vision of an eye (a lens opens to record the light reflecting off of the world around it). But a photogram physically meets its subject and records the mark of an interaction. By further subverting photography’s intended use and making touch more primary than sight, she urge her already antiquated medium forward—asking it to transcribe texture, pressure and force as well as light—and to read the surface of the world in a new way. She uses simple materials to make her “photographic rubbings” and “photographic reliefs,” relying on analog light-sensitive paper, her hands, a flashlight and sometimes an etching press. In darkness, she emboss paper with artifacts of material culture and patterns from the natural landscape, then she casts light onto the resulting textures. This method feels simultaneously like reading braille, praying and gambling.

In Generation, McKenna apply this method to textiles and women’s clothing from the last two centuries, objects that carry a rich legacy of touch—from the labor of their making to signs of wear. The history of textiles, clothing and style is comprised of a million stories of migration, cultural appropriation, and women’s labor and sexuality. Each article of clothing contains moments of individual innovation and decades of ordinary devotion. With every use, alteration or mending, someone has inscribed themselves onto these textiles. Just as each handmade garment was made through the patient labor of one woman’s body, so is it undone that way, worn down slowly over time, deconstructed or creatively cannibalized.