The space surrounding us is thick. Like geology, there are layers of space and place in the invisible air that swaddles us. Imbued with memory and history, the objects inhabiting our world breathe and vibrate. These objects and their surroundings are always on the precipice of becoming strange to us.

The two series comprising Enstranged Spaces, Blurs/Blears (2010-11) and Enstranged Spaces (1015), make strange the familiar through translations, conversations, and degradations of images of these spaces.

Installation shot of “Enstranged Spaces.” L to R: selections from “Blurs/Blears” (2010-11), “Space #1” (2015), “Enstranged Space #1” (2015)

Clockwise from top left: “Blemish #1” (2011), “Mimed Blemish #1” (2011), “Mimed Blemish #5” (2011), “Blemish #5” (2011)

Installation Shot of “Enstranged Spaces.” L to R: “Untitled Blur #1” (2010), “Untitled Blur #5” (2010), “Enstranged Space #2” (2015), “Space #2” (2015)

Blurs/Blears is a layering of domestic spaces on top of themselves by using multiple processes of analog and digital translations. Original analog images made with a broken camera are first translated into digital files and then glitched – image files are opened in software not meant for them. Sometimes this results in corrupt files that will never open; sometimes an image file successfully renders. These images are further translated into sound files, sound-images. Back and forth between file types. Borders between discrete types blur and turn fuzzy; snow from the outside makes its way in.

The new works in Enstranged Spaces are site-responsive to Kibbee Gallery’s specific architectural features. By way of multiple photography printing processes, the images of the space transform with the particular materials. Photographs of these features intervene and inhabit this architecture, and the certain groupings of the various materials coalesce to form an alternate rendering of the place.

Enstranged Spaces was presented in the two-person exhibition Close: New Works by Nicole Akstein and Meredith Kooi curated by Chanel Kim at Kibbee Gallery from March 7, 2015 – March 28, 2015.

Installation Shot of “Enstranged Spaces.” L to R: “Untitled Blur #1” (2010), “Untitled Blur #5” (2010), “Enstranged Space #2” (2015), “Space #2” (2015)

“Enstranged Space #2” (2015) and “Space #2” (2015)

Installation shot of “Enstranged Spaces.” L to R: selections from “Blurs/Blears” (2010-11), “Space #1” (2015), “Enstranged Space #1” (2015)

Clockwise from top left: “Blemish #1” (2011), “Mimed Blemish #1” (2011), “Mimed Blemish #5” (2011), “Blemish #5” (2011)

Installation shot of “Enstranged Spaces.” L to R: “One and one and one … make a hundred affections (afflictions)” (2011), “Blemish #2” (2011), “Mimed Blemish #2” (2011), “Blemish #2” (2010)

Installation shot of “Enstranged Spaces.” T to B: “One and one and one … make a hundred affections (afflictions)” (2011), “Blemish #2” (2011), “Mimed Blemish #2” (2011)