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Newcastle-born Amanda J. Kennington is a photographic artist who depicts well-known fairytales, ghost stories, or familiar daydreams through her photographic imagery. In many of her images, she exclusively constructs the scenes that she photographs using carefully chosen locations, models, costumes, and props. There is often a central character in Kennington’s narratives, which is frequently performed by the artist herself. Home, Kennington’s new work, explores the home and its relation to the uncanny. The intimate and familiar essence of home is distorted in these images taken at night of abandoned houses. Through the sinister veil of darkness, the homes appear occupied with a life force of their own. |
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Newcastle-born Amanda J. Kennington is a photographic artist who depicts well-known fairytales, ghost stories, or familiar daydreams through her photographic imagery. In many of her images, she exclusively constructs the scenes that she photographs using carefully chosen locations, models, costumes, and props. There is often a central character in Kennington’s narratives, which is frequently performed by the artist herself.
Home, Kennington’s new work, explores the home and its relation to the uncanny. The intimate and familiar essence of home is distorted in these images taken at night of abandoned houses. Through the sinister veil of darkness, the homes appear occupied with a life force of their own. The images entice the construction of narratives, and through the use of subtle suggestion, allow the viewer to fill in the details.
In Kennington’s first public artwork, Telling Tales, she uses well-known female characters from fairytales, such as Red Riding Hood, Rapunzel, and Sleeping Beauty, to explore issues of female identity, from adolescence to adulthood. These archetypical characters are photographed in contemporary urban settings, bringing them into the everyday and challenging their timelessness. Telling Tales explores the essential issues faced by people: life and death, love and hate, victory and defeat, in the context of contemporary culture.
Kennington has repeatedly used photography to make memories physical, using images as a kind of affirmation of her existence. The photographic image has become a way of remembering and understanding, building a file of “real” events to help strengthen that sense of place. Therefore, this performance process plays a significant part in her work. Often described as playful phototherapy, these private performances play out the artist’s own fears, fantasies, and realities.
