Constance Thalken (/tah-kin/; born 1952 in Nebraska) is an American

intermedia Intermedia is an art theory term coined in the mid-1960s by Fluxus artist Dick Higgins to describe various interdisciplinarity art activities that occur between genres, beginning in the 1960s. It was also used by John Brockman to refer to works ...

artist known mostly for her photographic explorations of the complexities of loss. She has gained recognition for her ability to carefully convey subject matter that simultaneously engages the viewer perceptually, emotionally, viscerally and intellectually.

Early life and education

Thalken was born in

Columbus, Nebraska Columbus is a city in and the county seat of Platte County, in the state of Nebraska in the Midwestern United States. The population was 22,111 at the 2010 census. It is the 10th largest city in Nebraska, with 24,028 people as of the 2020 censu ...

. She has lived in the Chicago area, the coalfields of Eastern Kentucky and in Knoxville, Tennessee. She has a BA in psychology from

Barat College Barat College of the Sacred Heart was a small Catholic college located in Lake Forest, Illinois, north of Chicago. The college was named after Madeleine Sophie Barat, founder of the Society of the Sacred Heart. Barat College was purchased by De ...

and completed an MFA in photography at

Yale University Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the wo ...

in 1988. On graduation, she was awarded the

Yale School of Art The Yale School of Art is the art school of Yale University. Founded in 1869 as the first professional fine arts school in the United States, it grants Masters of Fine Arts degrees to students completing a two-year course in graphic design, painti ...

's Alice Kimball English Traveling Fellowship to photograph in the

Yukon Territory Yukon (; ; formerly called Yukon Territory and also referred to as the Yukon) is the smallest and westernmost of Canada's three territories. It also is the second-least populated province or territory in Canada, with a population of 43,964 as ...

of Canada. In 1990, she accepted a teaching position with the Welch School of Art and Design at

Georgia State University Georgia State University (Georgia State, State, or GSU) is a Public university, public research university in Atlanta, Atlanta, Georgia. Founded in 1913, it is one of the University System of Georgia's four research universities. It is also the ...

(GSU) in Atlanta where she continues to reside. She was awarded professor ''emerita'' status when she retired from GSU in 2018.

Career

Many of Thalken's influences lie beyond the realm of photography. She is inspired by readings in philosophy, anthropology, fiction, poetry and critical writings. These sources shape her work and provide further depth to her investigations. She has received numerous honors and awards for her work. Her work is in the permanent collections of the

High Museum of Art The High Museum of Art (colloquially the High) is the largest museum for visual art in the Southeastern United States. Located in Atlanta, Georgia (on Peachtree Street in Midtown, the city's arts district), the High is 312,000 square feet (28, ...

, the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston, the

Birmingham Museum of Art The Birmingham Museum of Art is a museum in Birmingham, Alabama. It has one of the most extensive collections of artwork in the Southeastern United States, with more than 24,000 paintings, sculptures, prints, drawings, and decorative arts repres ...

in Alabama, the

Museum of Contemporary Art of Georgia The Museum of Contemporary Art of Georgia (MOCA GA) is a contemporary art museum located in Atlanta, Georgia. The museum collects and archives contemporary works by Georgia artists. MOCA GA uses its exhibition schedule to increase its permanen ...

Yale University Library The Yale University Library is the library system of Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut. Originating in 1701 with the gift of several dozen books to a new "Collegiate School," the library's collection now contains approximately 14.9 milli ...

, The Bunnen Collection, the Zuckerman Museum of Art and Dean, Ringers, Morgan and Lawton of Orlando, Florida, along with other private collections. Thalken is represented by Whitespace Gallery in Atlanta.

Work

Notable projects

''Eyes Open Slowly''
This 2015 project draws from Thalken's investigations of a taxidermy shop. The body of work includes portrait-like images of stuffed animals in process as well as abstracted close-ups of animal hide, fur and surfaces, such as the salt floor of the shop. Among the images is a detail of animal scratches on a steel exterior door of the shop. The taxidermy process is denoted with varying degrees of subtlety. The completed animals appear alive, while others are pinned and taped and in process of becoming "animal". A signature image depicts a pair of chamois horns, taped together and hanging from wire. Thalken's imagery evokes comparisons between taxidermy and embalming, humans and animals, life and death, and speaks to loss and grief. ''1.2 cm =''
In ''1.2 cm ='', Thalken presents 45 photographs of bodily "discards" that were removed during her 14-month treatment for breast cancer accompanied by three large scale self-portraits. The photographs of the discarded bandages are labeled with their corresponding medical procedures, e.g. "Biopsy #2 11/27/09" and "Haircut #1 2/23/10", a bundle of hair from her first treatment-induced haircut. The installation includes an ultrasound image of her tumor housed in a lightbox with a list of statistics compiled from her period of treatments. The title refers to the size of her tumor and invites comparison between the small physical size of the tumor and its profound impact on the body and mind. As a whole, the work employs illness as a metaphor for exploring loss, mortality, coping and the body as a medical object. ''The Soul Is A Light Housekeeper''
This project is derived from monthly collections of debris collected from the artist's vacuum cleaner over the course of one year. The photographs, each scaled to the size of the debris pile, document the discarded remnants of daily life and the routines surrounding them. According to Thalken, the images comment "on the former life of the material itself and on my life as the generator and gatherer of the remains". ''Red Jacket''
Inspired by the death of her mother from Alzheimer's disease in 2000, ''Red Jacket'' is a 13-minute multi-media performance that re-enacts Thalken's selective memories of her mother. The piece explores several aspects of loss including grief and the manner in which dementia erased the identity of her mother. ''Ancient Pieties: Maps of Mexico''
This body of work consists of photographs that combine images of animals with the landscape and religious iconography of Mexico. The images were created by layering multiple Polaroid film exposures to convey a sense of indeterminacy. Thalken describes this technique as a means to not only "dematerialize the animal in order to convey its spiritual nature", but also to suggest "“the duality of life and death and the uncertainty that lies between". ''Fragments of An Elegy''
Photographed over the course of five years, these images primarily refer to the annual alligator harvests of coastal regions of Louisiana and the Florida Panhandle. The work explores issues of mortality, cycles of life and human-animal hierarchies.

Permanent collections

High Museum of Art, Atlanta, Georgia
The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas
The Birmingham Museum of Art, Birmingham, Alabama
The Museum of Contemporary Art of Georgia, Atlanta, Georgia
The Bunnen Collection, Atlanta, Georgia Yale University Library, New Haven, Connecticut Dean, Ringers, Morgan and Lawton, Orlando, Florida Georgia Perimeter College, Clarkston, Georgia

Sources

*Francisco, Jason (February 5, 2013)
"Photographer and cancer survivor Constance Thalken gives new meaning to "personal""
''Arts ATL''. *Lampe, Lilly (January 2013)
"The power of 1.2 cm = at Whitespace Gallery"
''BurnAway''. *McClure, Faith (2015, December). “Unraveling the elegiac in ''Eyes Open Slowly''”. Catalog Essay for exhibit at The Light Factory, Charlotte North Carolina. *McClure, Faith (May 28, 2015)
"Constance Thalken's "Eyes Open Slowly" profound meditation on mortality, at Whitespace"
''Arts ATL''. *McClure, Faith (January 1, 2014)
"Notable exhibitions, works of art and experiences of 2013
''Arts ATL''. *Weiskopf, Dan (June 2015)
"The afterlives of animals: Constance Thalken at Whitespac"
''BurnAway''. *Graves, Kris; Seikaly, Roula; Feinstein, Jon, ''On Death'', 2019, +KGP, New York, NY. *Amon, Stephanie (December 1, 2018)
"Now You Don't: Photography and Extinction"
''In The In-Between''. *Kisiel, Emma (April 19, 2017)
"Constance Thalken: Eyes Open Slowly"
' *Dozois, Michelle (July 24, 2016)

''The New York Times''.

External links

Constance Thalken official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Thalken, Constance 1952 births Living people 20th-century American artists 20th-century American women artists 21st-century American women