Kaya & Blank are lens-based media artists whose work explores the ways in which humans shape and inhabit the world. The influence of neoliberal politics on the way we live has been an important part of their practice in recent years. Their projects often focus on traces of economic infrastructures to examine politics in built environments and how humanity’s dominance over nature finds its manifestation in everyday architecture. In their work, they erase the physical distance in between existing structures and create dense compilations of industrial fragments to construct new landscapes that look both alien and familiar at the same time.
Deeply grounded in documentary practices, their approach is characterized by a strong emphasis on research. However, by pushing the boundaries of how reality can be depicted, they transcend the domain of representation and create completely independent, often hyperreal visual worlds. As a result, the boundaries between reality and fiction in their work become blurred. By framing their subjects almost exclusively at night, they aim to accentuate the artificial and uncanny qualities of contemporary urban environments. This visual strategy often has the effect that the documentary parts of the works are interpreted by viewers as computer-generated images.
In exhibitions they turn their research and discoveries into multi layered installations. Photographs and videos are frequently supplemented by texts and objects. Their work often has a direct material connection to the topics depicted in their videos and photographs. By creating these complex, spatial compilations, they offer spectators an immersive experience that in equal measures shows conceptual depth as well as a rigorous formal execution.