We live in an era where our interactions with objects are deeply entangled with late capitalist market forces and predominantly materialistic desires. Synthetic materials, mass production, 3D printing have changed the way we create, value and relate to objects. Practices such as planned obsolescence and marketing shortens the lifecycle of products, meanwhile digitalization reduces our physical contacts with materials. How will our relation to objects change at the verge of a new world of augmented- and virtual realities? The artist book Wood Works is a delicate contemplation addressing these tendencies as well as a gentle reminder of our profound relation to objects - specifically those made of wood that is definitely one of the most important materials in the history of mankind.
Wood works contains a collection of a wide variety of objects that have one thing in common – they are all related to wood. Raw wood, cardboards juxtaposed with carefully crafted ornaments, living trees pictured together with decayed, dead wood, polished objects stand side by side raw-, construction materials – these are just a few examples of the visual constellations presented in the book. The photographs are playful, poetic and seemingly casual, yet they suggest an underlying strategy of meticulous staging and careful composing.
Photographic and sculptural practices have always been strongly interconnected. Løkkens project explores various aspects of these genres and initiates a visual discourse around certain binaries, such as physical objects and their two dimensional mediation, multiple or singular perspective, material and intangible. Touch – more precisely the sense, trace, memory of touch – is deeply embedded in the photographed objects and becomes a key motive of the photo series. The invisible yet profoundly strong presence of the human hands that (more or less) have formed these objects are at the heart of the book. The photographs of crafted, carved, sanded, polished objects and even the raw, natural structures of tree trunks and branches – carry a strong sense of tactility and an odd feeling of warmth. Wood Works is a playful photographic musing on the very essence of wood, as well as mankind's historic (and future) relation to this simple yet fascinating material.
Wood works contains a collection of a wide variety of objects that have one thing in common – they are all related to wood. Raw wood, cardboards juxtaposed with carefully crafted ornaments, living trees pictured together with decayed, dead wood, polished objects stand side by side raw-, construction materials – these are just a few examples of the visual constellations presented in the book. The photographs are playful, poetic and seemingly casual, yet they suggest an underlying strategy of meticulous staging and careful composing.
Photographic and sculptural practices have always been strongly interconnected. Løkkens project explores various aspects of these genres and initiates a visual discourse around certain binaries, such as physical objects and their two dimensional mediation, multiple or singular perspective, material and intangible. Touch – more precisely the sense, trace, memory of touch – is deeply embedded in the photographed objects and becomes a key motive of the photo series. The invisible yet profoundly strong presence of the human hands that (more or less) have formed these objects are at the heart of the book. The photographs of crafted, carved, sanded, polished objects and even the raw, natural structures of tree trunks and branches – carry a strong sense of tactility and an odd feeling of warmth. Wood Works is a playful photographic musing on the very essence of wood, as well as mankind's historic (and future) relation to this simple yet fascinating material.
