Samuel Laurence Cunnane
Kipple
May 8 – June 21, 2025
Kipple by Samuel Laurence Cunnane will take place at Öktem Aykut from May 8th to June 21st. The opening will be on Thursday, May 8th between 18.30-20.30.
Cunnane’s photographs house pieces of stories. Playing with the raw material of the world, without changing the course of things, he seeks to minimize the invasiveness of the camera.
Rather than wanting to preserve a memory, Cunnane is interested in capturing the elements that are on the sidelines of our memories. The movement of stepping back and moving in, creating tension and creating space for the unknown. This sometimes includes elevating certain moments that are mundane, creating assumptions that these moments contain memories; to open space for imagination, possibly for desires. Lack of information opens room for play, gives way to many other possibilities; dreams, fantasies and hope. The photographs become mirrors for the viewer, allowing for multiple realities and private thoughts to play out.
Kipple is a term coined by Philip K. Dick in his novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?¹ It refers to the clutter that accumulates as a by-product of human life; things that once had a function but have become obsolete, disposable or purposeless. Kipple reproduces itself when nobody is around.
The photographs present us a glimpse of who Cunnane is outside of his identity as a photographer. Honing his ability to exist in his comfort zone, he is able to capture and feed moments by looking at things from a distance. Kipple emerges as Cunnane’s way of acknowledging all that is left behind; a collection of things, objects and ideas in various states of disuse or decay, accumulating and replicating.
¹Philip K. Dick’s novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, published in 1968, was adapted for the big screen in 1982 and directed by Ridley Scott under the name Blade Runner. The film, which quickly became a cult production, is considered one of the masterpieces of the science fiction genre, in 2017 it was followed by Denis Villeneuve’s film under the name Blade Runner 2049.