Reflecting on the authority of imagery in constructing an understanding of spaces, objects and landscapes, I make photographs and installations that suggest the disconnections between a physical experience and its two-dimensional representation. Through processes of fragmenting, editing and re-constructing found imagery, I treat images like sculptural objects, which are then photographed and returned to an image. In this way, a system of re-ordering and distillation takes place between the found images and their re-representation, allowing the context, narrative, authorship, and authenticity to be called into question.
Alexis Dirks (b. 1982 Winnipeg, Canada) completed her MFA at the Glasgow School of Art in 2009 after graduating from the University of Manitoba with a BFA Honors Degree in 2006. She currently lives and works in Yellowknife, NT. She has exhibited in Canada, Europe and the UK, most recently participating in Abilities, a group show at Jeanine Hofland Contemporary Artin Amsterdam with the artist collective Gandt. Other exhibitions include CAVE Art Fair as part of Liverpool’s 2012 Biennial; Geologue (2012), a solo exhibition at the Briggait Gallery, Glasgow; Light Reflecting Object (2013) at the Reiss Building, Winnipeg; and Refractive Index in Atelier am Eck, Dusseldorf, as part of a two month residency supported by the Dusseldorf Kulturamt in 2011.