Marlen Keller
MARLEN KELLER TOGGLES BETWEEN AESTHETICS OF THE NATURAL AND THE ARTIFICIAL, KITSCH AND COOL, ANACHRONISTIC AND FUTURISTIC.
Marlen is a London-based Swiss photographer who has brought a beguiling sensuality and welcome strangeness to lookbooks for Stella McCartney x Adidas and Ottolinger, and to editorials in 032c, Interview Germany, Wallpaper, and Novembre. For Marlen it seems the body, inside and out—even in its absence—is a primary source of fascination and meaning. Opting for a temporary lockdown in Switzerland, with its relatively flexible restrictions, Marlen was able to continue working on a suite of images (and a poem) for TSUKI that continue her psycho-geographical photography of both natural and built spaces.
HAS THIS SITUATION REQUIRED OR EVEN DEMANDED THAT YOU TRY SOMETHING NEW?
The halting of the continuous flow of things made it possible for me to concentrate more on reading, and also deliberately decide which direction I want to lead my research, rather than taking inspiration here and there and mashing it all into one. If I’m rushed with things I sometimes feel quite empty at the end of the process.
I started writing poems and short texts again, something I loved doing when I was younger but couldn’t concentrate on in the last few years.
HOW ARE YOU STAYING INSPIRED AND MOTIVATED?
I don’t feel the urge to create at the moment, for me it’s a moment to reflect on what it means to create and what is important to me. Obviously being clear about this intention doesn’t mean that I am not lost sometimes, being in the middle of so many overwhelming events. Now, I am forced to watch, to observe, and I hope to discover new things about everyone and everything around me. I am not sure that the things which were important before COVID-19 will be still important afterward. Maybe we will all have changed, and I hope that we will come out of this situation knowing more about our strength, our mutual vulnerability, and our capacity for forgiveness.
HOW HAS LOCKDOWN-LIFE ALTERED YOUR WORK?
My physical working radius has shrunk dramatically. I temporarily moved to Switzerland just before the lockdown, since I knew I would have more freedom of movement here than I would have had in London; there are a lot of forests and open areas nearby where I can go to if I need space.
I was spending some time with friends in Zürich when I realized that a series I had started a few months ago totally resonated with the neighborhood I was staying in. I am very interested in the split we make between nature and culture, and how much this split is embedded in our daily way of formulating and shaping things. I feel that in our culture, nature is continually presented as a lost world. The idea of a wildly overgrown area is a romantic and nostalgic idea—it’s an image that does not correspond to the new relationship we have with our surroundings. In reality we play an active role and are actively involved in affecting all lifecycles. The nature that surrounds us is changing along with us.
HOW DID THIS SERIES ORIGINATE?
I started noticing and then photographing plants and trees that have been sculpted and manicured. Shaping a tree gives it a new meaning and makes it a representation of our fear of losing control of the bigger picture.
For me, this series is about manufacturing satisfaction, which we aim to achieve by putting things in places where we think they belong. Our internal landscape has spaces that we fill with our surroundings, and vice versa. For me, the series is all about the boundaries that we build for and against ourselves, both to include and exclude. In this way the series fits perfectly with my mindset during this lockdown.
WHO ELSE'S WORK MIGHT YOU WANT TO SEE FEATURED ON TSUKI?
Amanda Camenisch, Gary David Moore.
HAVE YOU BEEN WATCHING / LISTENING TO / READING ANYTHING INTERESTING?
I am currently freaking out over Nick Cave’s “Steve McQueen”. What great lyrics! The man is a genius.
HOW HAS COMPOSING TEXTS AND POEMS WORKED ITS WAY INTO YOUR CREATIVE PRACTICE?
My main interest is to create images, but I use writing as a tool to become aware of structures and feelings. I finally found the headspace to sit down and write in a more spontaneous and creative way. Before the lockdowns happened, I was restless, and my concentration span was that of a goldfish. I wrote a short poem that describes my feelings during this time. The restriction to a single location had no great impact on me, nor did my daily rhythm change dramatically, but the physical distancing with people around me was hard for me to take. I experienced my body as a cage; not able to connect, isolated and rejected. Of course I am aware that this distance I experience is nothing personal, but somehow this is how my body felt. I became much more aware of how incredibly important physical touch is for me. In other ways, I am extremely fascinated by these new social contracts that we’ve made with everyone around us. They are empathic and democratic and somehow make me feel good about humanity.
I’m a lover, I measure, I stop
I am an accepting body
Limbs, told to move, to hold
Heroic is the murderer and lover of her own
Its continuing hold, they find it hard to explain.
Shy loving bodies, my center of attention
So yes, so much and no more