Kiss Me

Inkjet prints on MDF

Dimensions: 9 panels of 20 cm x 30 cm

 

 

Kiss Me is a series of digitally manipulated photographs of children’s awkward attempts to form kisses for the camera. Enlarged, cropped, and boldly confronting the viewer in stark black and white, they are more intimidating than cute. Registering not so much as expressions of love as attempts to comply with, and perhaps mock, interrelational conventions, the act of ‘kissing’ shows up as an acquired skill and custom. Yet, although enacted on demand by the adult / photographer, these children’s kisses are also demanding - of the viewer - in their directness and frank beckoning. Kiss Me thus exposes the underlying power relations embedded in human exchanges of ‘giving and taking’, even the ones we act out in the name of love.