English Translation:
Elizabeth Chiles has a large garden and a studio that is flooded with light; indoor and outdoor spaces flow into each other. This opens up a meditative experience of nature as well as constructive thinking about the challenges of our times. These reflections are visible conceptually and aesthetically in Chiles’ series Time Being.
The artist has developed a unique method for this work—utilizing a linen cloth that she rests on two tripods. For Time Being, no. 16 Chiles positions the device in the flower meadow in her garden in a spot that seems ideal to her project. In order to keep the picture from becoming too cluttered, she concentrates on just two types of plants for the series: poppies in various colors and purple delphinium. They are visible both in front of, and behind, the fabric. In the background they appear as monochromatic silhouettes. These outlines interweave in the curtain with the colorful flowers in the foreground. For the artist, brighter colors denote sensuality, while she feels monochromatic shades to be intellectual or meditative signs.
Combining up to twenty views, which she adds digitally to create her collages, adds more poppies and delphiniums in various sizes and lighting to create moods. ‘Often a single photo can’t render what I’m searching for,’ Chiles says. In Time Being, no. 03 the camera is so close to the ground that it gives the feeling that one could creep into the picture. ‘Bodies should lose themselves within, feel the wind sighing, and be able to perceive the lighting mood’, Chiles narrates. Here the folds in the curtain demonstrate a feeling of plasticity and movement.
Time Being, no. 16 addresses the spiritual question: what comes after life? Chiles says. Chiles brings grand philosophical questions into the immediate and local: Why are we here? What does it all mean? How does a good life succeed in the community? Already as a child she occupied herself with questions such as: How does something begin? Where does the seed come from? And as a 21-year old she was fascinated by the light that traveled to us from a galaxy for billions of years. At that time she also became familiar with the paintings of William Turner. In them was reflected not only his sublime light but also the world pollution of the industrial revolution. Through Turner she recognized, as if struck by lightning, that these were precisely her themes, and she felt called to be an artist and a photographer. ‘In life it is not often that one is so sure,’ she said. ‘That was a great gift.’
Ute Noll discovered Elizabeth Chiles’ portfolio at the Portfolio Reviews of the Meeting Place at the biannual Fotofest in March 2024 in Houston. The artist is represented by the Koslov Larsen Gallery in Houston and she lives in Austin, Texas.
Translated by Ellen Benton Feinstein
June 2024
