Katherine Wolkoff - Deer Beds

Katherine Wolkoff’s, Deer Beds is a 2007 series of focused landscapes photographing the sleeping places of local deer in the wild grasses of Block Island, USA. Wolkoff’s work invokes the absence of the sleeping deer in these places, bringing to light a story of presence, passing, and rest in the stillness of the matted grassy hollows.

I first encountered Deer Beds through my partner - she often brings work to my attention that speak of rest and repose. With the saturation of image-based work that reaches me on a daily basis Deer Beds has perhaps taken on a unique poignancy in arriving through a loved one; the significance and meaning of the work is shared. Cheap prints of Wolkoff’s photographs are stuck to the walls of my studio and remind me of the simplicity and depth one encounters in absence. The meadows and fields upon which this absence has been stamped further appeal to a romantic conception of an agrarian wilderness. It must be noted these deers and many of accompanying plants are an invasie on Block Island. I find myself returning to Wolkoff’s photographs to meditate upon their subject or perhaps the absence of a subject. Through Dear Beds I encounter themes of the Other, the body both human and non-human, absence, and rest - all themes I circle through my own practice.

Katherine’s work can be found here.