Kristina Knipe

Talisman, 2022

In her project “Talisman”, Kristina Knipe constructs identity through mythology in queer communities in New Orleans. This work examines the material and visual excess created from decadences, masquerades, and healing practice as it relates to the body. The artist’s photographs trace the life of objects, spaces and the body as they are transformed from elements and are being reused. For instance, we see objects disappear and resurface broken in other pictures, bodies change, time transforms people and plants die. In her practice, Kristina Knipe works in close collaboration with the sitters in order to make photographs that reflect individual stories of healing. She adorns them with shared materials to create a transformative experience of pleasure. This process is a queer ritual. “Talisman” works towards a merging and healing of nature, the man-made and the body in a flawed, but beautiful manifestation.

The project portrays people, whose reality consists of the burden of maintaining mental health without having healthcare, of being a person whose role is to make other’s spaces beautiful which by necessity means repurposing objects for their own, of having traumatic experiences with no recourse, cycles of depression in the service of the hospitality industry, expressing gender and sexuality despite judgement, and persisting in generative work through loss. The artist’s story is intertwined with those she photographs. They cohabit spaces and experiences within a community of artists, activists, and healers.

“Yeah, a lot of my process is about a desire to heal. Creating a work of art that really acknowledges the difficulties and complexities of life in a beautiful way is therapeutic to me.”

 Kristina Knipe

Biography

Kristina Knipe is an artist and educator who was born in the USA in 1990. She lives between Brooklyn and New Orleans. In her work, she touches the themes of intimacy, healing and community by using the mediums of photography, video and installation. For her, the photographic practice is synonymous to the healing practice of her own as well as of others and displays it in a honest and eclectic way.

exhibitions // Notable achievements

- Clarence John Laughlin Award (US), 2020

- "Identity Measures", The Contemporary Art Center, New Orleans (US), 2019

- Photographers’ Fellowship Fund, The Center for Photography at Woodstock (US), 2013