Kerimcan Goren

Waves of Fear is a body of work that generated after a visit to the Kodak Paper Factory in Middlesex. Due to close at the end of 2016, disused parts of the facility were being scavenged to recover large groups of expired colour negative paper. Awaiting recycling in organised stacks, the materials were left in the open for an unknown period of time, thus allowing corrosive signs of atmospheric damage to clearly become visible on their wet surfaces. Interpreting this spectacle as an allegorical one, the ramifications of time and progress begin to manifest themselves in a literal display of history running or dripping away. Waves of Fear adopts this melancholic experience in order to confront the flippant tendencies of accelerating technological shifts. Through an irreverent treatment of Kodak’s highly sophisticated photographic material, and applying this gesture to found fashion images from the late 90s, this body of work becomes a response to the factory’s closure and the current lack of demand for colour negative paper. Referencing Kodak's former ubiquity, and acknowledging the commercial industries that once relied on it, the amalgamated sculptures can be seen as an attempt to commemorate a moment in history as well as the artist's growing sense of loss.