Aunia Kahn poses for a photo at an exhibition. She stands proudly next to her artworks, her pink trimmed knee-highs making her almost taller than the converted doors where her pictures hang. With a pink sash hoisting in the black layers around the waist, she pulls back her shoulders and smiles.
I think that if there were a gothic, super heroine, Aunia would be it. But the image of the artist is a distant world from the downtrodden female characters that she portrays in her latest series.
Aunia’s 2007 collectionis mixed media series of self-portraits. ‘I have a dress-up closet which has kind of morphed into a dress-up room’, explains Aunia ‘So that when I am inspired to do something I have access to the clothes to create a character.’
In full regalia, Aunia then sets out to different parts of her hometown, St Louis, Missouri, to photograph herself using a tripod.
However, the real constructions of Aunia’s fantasy scenes are invented in Aunia’s studio den, where she spends hours manipulating her photos, ‘painting on the computer’ and composing collages.
The aesthetic oscillates somewhere between 3D gothic video game when and early 1900’s French hand-coloured cinema. Deep looming shadows, and duplicitous images in mirrors are reminiscent of Film Noir techniques.
Faceless male figures looming over women laying exhausted and beaten on the floor allude not-so-subtly to themes of domestic violence and the female struggle. Although most of the images come from dreams and her imagination, Aunia’s process of creation acts as a kind of self-therapy. Growing up in an abusive home, the lip-ringed teenager moved away and ended up getting sick with a panic disorder. Now, successful and well spoken, Aunia describes that time without regrets. ‘The only escape for me was my art. I felt like I just needed to purge things.’
You say that the female characters in your pictures are an extension of yourself. In what way do the women in your pictures represent you and how you fit into the world?
I have become an extension of my work by typically creating characters using myself as the model. This way I feel I stay totally connected to all facets of the creative process, even with the final product. More deeply each of my creations is a story, a place, a feeling, and something that I personally connect with.
You’re a self-taught artist. Do you think your lack of a formal arts education is what differentiates your work from others’? Have your strong pursuits in other areas (such as animal rescue, music, psychology) given you more ideas and content for your art than careerist-type artists may have?
You’re a self-taught artist. Do you think your lack of a formal arts education is what differentiates your work from others’? Have your strong pursuits in other areas (such as animal rescue, music, psychology) given you more ideas and content for your art than careerist-type artists may have?
I could see that being a possibility, but I am not sure. I think being involved in a large array of areas can open up things inside a person, but I am sure being in school could do the same. I think that each person’s life and what their interests are having a large effect on the way they create and what comes out in their work. For me, being extremely interested in psychology has certainly affected my work, and when people are viewing my creations and learn about my interest I get responses like “Oh, I can definitely see that in your workâ€.
Each picture has a kind of cinematic tension, as if they are stills from a film, or part of a larger scene or story. Do you know the larger script behind them or is that left up to the viewers to imagine?
You could not be more right. They are stories of my life, my dreams, my passions, my fears, my hopes the past, present and future things that affect me. They are very personal creations and I know much more about the whole story than most will ever know. I personally like to keep my work open to interpretation and find it even harder when people ask me to give reasons or meaning about specific works. Really the meanings change for me daily; what a piece speaks to me one day, another day can be totally different. People’s interpretations always fascinate me. I find interest in the connection people can have with my work because it is so open for the viewer to take what they personally want.
Red roses and mirrors are a recurring motif in your 2007 series: What do they signify?
Red roses and mirrors are a recurring motif in your 2007 series: What do they signify?
A good majority of my art is a reflection of my life, and who I am, mirrors are a tangible representation of this idea. The flowers have always been a part of my art in some way. The ying and yang of the more difficult content of my work, with the light and sweet creation of nature’s flowers give a good balance in my work.
Written by Elsa Evers
