T (2013) by Absalon Kirkeby belongs to a series of works in which the Danish artist shifts works on the border between photography and painting. These pieces have undergone intense post-production processes that make it hard to recognise what they depict. In the specific case of T, a winding, bright yellow line presumably made using a digital spray, draws the full attention of the spectator as it runs from the top to the bottom of the image, occupying much of the space and concealing the motif photographed. The line disorganises or reorganises the image by turning the specific, i.e. the object photographed, into yet another form of abstract composition.
The images exhibited mainly seem to be dreamlike: scenes halfway between the reality of being awake and the personal fiction of falling asleep. The artist says that sometimes he does not sleep for days at a time so as to carry on taking photographs. This leads him into a type of trance where the perceptible is distorted and colours and reality mix.
Other works by Absalon Kirkeby