Object Portraiture
Libbie Allen, 2007

Photographer Jessie Eisner-Kleye’s show Object Portraiture consists of images of small objects the artist has collected from her parent’s home. She uses a scanner to capture these objects that in turn whites out the background, leaving the objects isolated in the center of the page. This allows the objects to take on a manner of importance on the oversized paper. From charm bracelets to miniature ceramics shoe figurines, the viewer is presented with artifacts the artist has dug out of boxes from under the bed and out of the back of the closet. Eisner-Kleye’s artist statement states that these photographs serve as an investigation into how her own personal identity has been shaped by these precious objects of her childhood.

The photographs are intensely personal and intimate. The artist pairs the image with a story about the object and its influence on her. The short anecdotes become the most important part of the pieces. The photographs and anecdotes are catalogued within a seemingly complex system. For example, #82 E G + G La Q V * is used for one of the pieces. This method of organization creates a paradox between the personal content of the pieces and the importance the detailed cataloguing system projects onto them.

The all white background and the very fact that these small treasures have been taken out of their hiding places and exposed on the wall evoke a nostalgia that any who had a childhood can relate to. After viewing a number of the pieces one has the desire to snoop through mom and dad’s secret places to fondle this and that which holds some sentimental value.

Eisner-Kleye ends her artist statement by asking the question her pieces pose: Can our objects hold memories or protect those memories? Object Portraiture poses many questions about the things we possess and our attachment to material objects. The personal nature of the work allows the viewer to put their own artifacts in place of the artist’s and ponder why the smallest object from the past can hold countless memories.

Object Portraiture reminds that we are each a historian, collector, and scientist of sorts when it comes to our own attachments, memory triggers, and recollections of the past.