‘Rubble Relativity’
Kt Allen is a London-born photographer, who explores the relationship between the human psyche and imperfect forms, whether natural or manmade constructs. In her work, the female body becomes sewn together with her own life experiences and connection to the world and is often distorted or rendered anonymous using mixed-media techniques – a combination of medium format film, collage and paint. A common theme explored within her work is the mind within a constant state of change, a wavering entity that is transformed and molded on loop by external and internal stimuli. Based on this, her work aims to lead the viewer to a space, devoid of time or context – one that focuses purely on the beauty of instability; with jagged climates and naked vulnerability acting as a metaphor for the ever-changing, revolving cycles of self.
The winding flow of consciousness envelopes itself around what it encounters, passively touched, consumed, fought. We seldom leave unscathed. Control is an illusionary concept we try to conceive, just as the external is shapeshifted by nature, seductively causing a chaotic mess of harsh exteriors. Yet, the real harshness remains inside: beyond there is beauty, outside to our tangible being, when we explore the lived human experience. The physical intertwining of a person, exteriors: transformative evolution is inescapable. It’s a sublime entrapment, one that we will never visually comprehend, but it is felt in the depths of our bones. We look to mirrors to find it, molding an appropriate metaphor of our repetitive nature, the cycle we cannot escape. You have to let it happen, be passive, drown, allow yourself to be, because it will happen either way. Experience happens to us, and we happen to it.