In his large-format photographs, Kevin van Aelst illustrates
the wonders of science and nature using the mundane snack foods and household clutter of American suburbia.
While he also creates excellent editorial photographs for the New York Times and others, it's his independent
artwork that we find most fascinating.
INMYX: How did you start making
these pictures? Have you always crafted things and played with your food?
Kevin
Van Aelst: I spent a couple years as the guy with the camera around his neck, looking for those moments
of beauty. But then I realized that I never valued craft and refined technique. Cleverness is the art
that I cherished the most: Tom Friedman, Andy Goldsworthy. I had this desire to make cleverness the
factor, instead of some sort of eye for beauty.
INMYX:
What piece started this train of thought?
Van Aelst: The very first one was The
Golden Mean: nine photographs of a slice of Wonder Bread. Bread is so universal, but at the same
time, there's nothing there. I wanted to touch on the opposite end of the spectrum from this stupid,
mundane quality: the idea that God speaks to us through mathematical ideas, sacred geometry. So I combined
those ideas. I went from there to science and mitosis and chromosomes, to just graphic representations
of ideas, like fingerprints and maps, but with the same idea: taking the everyday and imbibing it with
something a bit deeper.
INMYX: You've said your color palette is informed by food and everyday
products, but why does it look so '70s?
Van Aelst: It might come from how I picture
things. What's a living room supposed to look like? A kitchen table? I think of my own growing up. Specifically
with the fingerprint series, that is a kind of autobiography, it was very important that I went home
to my mom's house to shoot the pie on that specific tablecloth that I knew was at my parents' house.
And the one with the cheese curls: I had such a specific memory of going to my friend's basement to
play Nintendo and eat junk food. He had this chocolate brown rug. I really wanted to find that.
Link:
www.kevinvanaelst.com
