Larry Kless

OBJECT TROUVE = POSTMODERNISM

The use of found imagery or archival material from film or video is a Postmodern discourse in that it is a reappropriation of the past. My process mainly involves regeneration of imagery. I work with cultural object trouve - found objects and artifacts of the past and give them aesthetic value by displaying them as objects of art. These found objects, or imagery are taken out of context and put into a new context. If not to subvert, then to redefine this found object by making it my own. By reappropriating it, the image is incorporated into my point of view and the original meaning is reprocessed and repackaged as new content. It had pre-existed in the past in another form, and its original context has been abstracted, subverted, and transformed.

In the tradition of the Dadaists and Surrealists, the densely reworked montage of found footage is a subversive act in the hands of the avant-garde, inspiring many independent works. Storytelling has changed, evolved, and transformed as society has. It's taken on a new form. My images suggest a story, or parts of a story, a dream, or journey, as with the process of remembering. Each image, shot, or sequence is a cluster of thoughts and collection of ideas layered together using the past as a backdrop for the present. History and memory are so connected, (and so easily erased) one counts on the other. My work explores these boundaries.

http://home.earthlink.net/~lkless/film.html