Samantha Kilpatrick

VIRTUAL TOUR

ARTIST CATALOGUE

Spectral Potentialities

I began this project with the intention of exploring some of my fear, discomfort and confusion surrounding identity and social norms, specifically around gender, self-expression, and the expectations or performance surrounding these ideas. I am inspired primarily by the themes and tropes of gothic fiction, which concerns itself with alternative modes of expression and being, intentionally challenging societal norms and audience expectations to elicit unease and explore experiences of alienation, fear and desire. 

My intention is to evoke a sense of strangeness and indefinability, exploring the complexities, paradoxes and uncertainties I associate with identity and my personal experiences of femininity. To me, the gothic genre represents an opportunity to engage with that which is unknown or ambiguous, and to explore identity independent of conventional definitions. The project consists of two components: a series of images that exists as a long strip, wrapping around physical space, and a photobook. The ‘film strip’ was photographed with multiple exposures onto 35mm black and white film, creating strange, unpredictable and surreal effects, obscuring and merging images, allowing new, mysterious forms to emerge. I focus on imagery surrounding nature and the body, transforming the mundane into something otherworldly. 

The photobook contains mainly colour images, both digital and film, contrasting the monochromatic film strip and, in some ways, illuminating it, providing a closer, more intimate look into the project and into my inner world. I explore the potential of various photographic techniques to create unexpected images that reflect particular emotion or evoke curiosity. Red is an intentionally prevalent colour, speaking strongly of dualities; It represents both love and violence, and for me, also symbolises the tension between the seen and unseen as I question visibility with regards to my identity. I am interested in time and history, how it can be blurred or challenged and explored to reveal truths about the present, as well as how archaic ideas like patriarchy or heteronormativity pervade modern life. The gothic genre is necessarily concerned with how the past infringes upon the present, and the blurring of all socially constructed boundaries; it maintains eternal relevance as a subversive genre which resists the societal norms of the era it reflects and allows for explorations of that which is outside of the societal standard. 

The gothic is ultimately a romantic genre, about finding beauty and life within a world or situation that might appear hopeless or frightening. It accounts for the confusion, horror and complexity that surround experiences of alterity, whilst also creating a space for imagination outside of the socially acceptable parameters of other fictional genres. It allows one to imagine ways of navigating difficult and confusing realities. This project similarly aims to explore and navigate my own reality, to resist dominant societal narratives which control and define, to engage viewers imaginations and embrace ambiguity.