Erin O’Keefe is both a photographer and an architect whose work speaks to both art forms. The artist’s background in architecture plays an essential role in her artistic practice. The questions raised through her work concern spatial perception and the tools she uses are rooted in the abstract and formal language she developed as an architect. As a photographer, Erin O’Keefe is interested in the study of distortions and misunderstanding caused by the camera, as she translates 3-D spaces and shapes in a 2-D image. The core of her work pivots around this inevitable misalignment.
Straddling between illusion and reality, her abstract representations have a vibrant essence, the result of a balancing act of geometrical shapes and colour. All her work consists of unique pieces that put together her compositional skills and visual aesthetics, echoing painting. Painstakingly carefully detailed and painted wooden shapes form her mise-en-scène, with legible brush marks against solid backgrounds.
Erin O’Keefe calls upon us to think about the use of space through photography, the instrument of fiction par excellence, leaving viewers in a space for contemplation in an intimate sphere.