Artist statement

The work of Julia Krahn quests for the permeability of the sight between the artist’s and the observer’s identity. Daily objects, symbols, traces of the past are here redefined through the photographic images. Her works are therefore characterized by a fluid ambiguity: the artist is interested on crystallizing the fragments of a secret and real private and transforming it from a liquid to a solid state, more than just narrating a story or reporting the passing of time.

The artist research reflects upon lost and unbalanced values in society, family, and religion up to pointing her camera on images that recalls Christian icons. She creates images that underline the contrast with traditional symbols and works on the inner conflicts staging pairs of opposites, at times making self portraits with the automatic shutter release using her own body.

In Krahn's work importance is equally given to image and format on a range of work that is developed on different scales and supports creating an overall feeling that, from time to time, drives the observer in new perceptions of the image. Her giant wallpapers with all the strength of an image without supports, glass or frames overbear the observer, physically overlook him, acquiring pictorial features that like big frescos breaks the distance between the observer and the ambient. At the same time the artist combines the space with small unique pieces as the antique metal frames and reliquaries which to the contrary of the wallpapers set up a face to face dialogue with the viewer involving him with the preciousness of the object and of its perception. Likewise Memories is a series of photo/object mounted on a thick acrylic glass which acts as lens to the image leading the mind to the dimension of the souvenirs. In this context the artist inserts also more classical formats as framed pictures realized with more traditional supports.