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Dane Klingaman
Statement:
For over a year, my day job has been selling vintage and antique items on eBay. Many of these items are of rare and exclusive nature generally reserved for the wealthy and the privileged. These items include precious metals, cultural artifacts, antique books and designer handbags. During the process of photographing these gems I was surprised by my growing interest in certain detailed photographs which necessitated my need to paint them. The online market became a platform for gaining revenue and an important part of my creative process.
I examine the communication between buyer and seller, a naturally disconnected relationship furthered by the emergence of the internet. While things used to travel slowly through personal accounts, objects now fly from one corner to next. Controlling the traffic of this exchange is the idea of worth and ultimately, beauty. I am interested in less tangible forms of value such as historical context, age and memory. These paintings recreate a timeline of history and explore what it means for something to be valuable in western society.
