KELLY CLUREJ

Honolulu, HI | kellyciurej.com

Using the body as my palette, I aim to challenge traditional ideas of feminine beauty and submissive personality roles in favor of a confrontational approach. I am fascinated by the influence contemporary culture (capitalism, social media, etc.) has on our ability to show up as who we are in the modern every-day. I use humor and satire in many of my photographs as a way to challenge the absurdity of the situations often presented to us. This is how my current artwork functions—I want to witness the mess and watch it grow instead of immediately cleaning it up.

I am interested in exploring moments of self-discovery, the misalignment in thought, psychology and the myth of paradise.  More often than not, I have found there to be a gap between what we expect and what we get. My work examines the interplay between memory, identity, and cultural ideals through a photographic lens.

My practice shifts between capturing seemingly ordinary landscapes and crafting fictional, carefully choreographed scenes– delving into the interplay between what is true and what is imagined.  Social media and visual culture further inform my work, highlighting the ways in which they can distort our perception of reality—or create entirely new ones.