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Simen Johan, a Norwegian photographer, takes photos of animals in museum, at the zoo or he takes them in his studio. After that, he digitally creates an environment for them.
In his latest exhibition Until the Kingdom Comes at Brown University’s Bell Gallery, the artist creates a strange atmosphere with these photographs, maybe because the animals look as if they are aware that they are photographed, thus remembering of humans. For example, the lemur that sits in the tree with as he is sniffing at a flower.
The viewer has a sense of unease while looking at the seemingly sad rhinoceros sitting in a sand that has the same colour, as if he wants to camouflage.
As the artist states, the title Until the Kingdon Comes “refers less to religious or natural kingdoms and more to the human fantasy that one day, in some way, life will come to a blissful resolution. …In a reality where understanding is not finite and in all probability never will be, I depict ‘living’ as an emotion-fueled experience, engulfed in uncertainty, desire and illusion.”
It is difficult to state which is the context created for these photographs, as some take you to a space where the animals find peace, while others remind of the Apocalypse.
Most of his works are somehow monochrome, thus creating a dream-like atmosphere.
Here are other works from the same series: