Looking at Kim Keever’s massive c-prints of mystical landscapes and fantasy worlds you’d think he’s either extremely well travelled (Narnia…Middle Earth…) or a genius with the Photoshopping; however in fact he creates his works by setting up miniature scenes inside a 200 gallon fish tank, filling it with water and various pigments, then throwing a little coloured lighting, and voila! Sandstorms, Jurassic jungles, ice bergs and ancient forests all born out of the same old goldfish bowl.
So how does he do it…? Keever uses an analogue camera and zero digital editing, so it’s crucial that he catches his construction at just the right millisecond when the pigments are still drifting about to create that painterly ethereal look which all of his works have in common. The scenes are made from a combination of moulded plaster and found objects, and loosely based on real landscapes or paintings so they are simultaneously otherworldly yet eerily familiar.
Keever creates imitations of possible places with dramatic scenery and oversaturated colours which are far more exciting and desirable than the real world.
Definitely JM Turner in a tank, the submerged sublime, Caspar David Friedrich for the fishes.
Chloe Hodge 