A Photographic Series Fusing Eroticism, Still Lifes, And Landscapes By Ayline Olukman

The ethereal series reflects the duality of the visual artist’s work. ‘About The Mirror. Psyche’ is both art and photography; sitting between dream and reality it fuses bodies with nature, perishable objects, and materials. Olukman has created what she terms, “a broken and weird Renaissance”, mixing moody portraits, shimmering landscapes and still

lifes with references to Caravaggio’s 16th-century artwork, ‘Bacchus’. In this piece, Bacchus is surrounded by fruits and reclines suggestively, offering the viewer a glass of wine; the cup of pleasure. Olukman has used this piece of classical art history as a reference point for her own series. She staged the photo series in her painting studio and various outside locations. “I see these indoor and outdoor landscapes as a space where the body meets nature, and negotiates their differences and similarities”, she explains. Organic objects that decompose—like flowers and fruit, are attractive to her because of their observable life cycle. “Their skin becomes a material that I love to look at, a new texture and color appear”, she continues. “I use vegetation as a visual language to link still life, landscape, and portraiture. This preoccupation with life in transition forms the basis of her artistic vision. “Because of the fleeting nature of these objects they become my new vision of nostalgia.”