AUSTIN IRVING
WINDOWS

In her series WINDOWS, Irving studies the daylight that filters into rooms where curtains are pulled closed, blinds are drawn down, and shutters are locked into place. The spaces in which she creates these images are as dark as they can get during the daytime; her large format negatives are exposed only by the light that seeps through the fabric and cracks of the window dressings.

With exposures ranging from eight minutes to one hour, Irving transforms commonplace windows into ethereal objects: trompe l'oeil light sources floating on walls too dark to see. She urges us to consider fenestration as more than a functional architectural addition to an interior. Perhaps these windows are an optimistic look at what opportunities glow behind the curtains, the dressing begging to be pulled back to reveal a traversable portal of light; or maybe these windows are totems of grief and isolation, a funeral shroud blotting out the light that is out there, but that will never be fully let in.

Author
Austin Irving (b. 1984, NYC) is an award winning visual artist who works with large format analog photography. Irving graduated cum laude with a BFA from the Department of Photography and Imaging at NYU’s TISCH School Of The Arts in 2006. Her artwork has been exhibited in galleries and museums in Hong Kong, India, Germany, Lithuania, France, and across the United States. She has participated in exhibitions at institutions such as MOCA, The Irvine Fine Arts Center, FMoPA, The International Photography Symposium, Virginia Tech, NY Center for Photographic Arts, and The Katonah Museum of Art. Her work has been the recipient of the Architecture Master Prize, Aesthetica Art Prize, MonoAwards, American Photography Competition, IPA, PX3, TIFA, and BIFA. Her images have been featured in The LA Times, Wired, Slate, Architectural Digest, LA Weekly, PDN, Artillery, TimeOut NY, Artsy, Voyage LA, Yatzer, and Artweek LA. Irving lives in Los Angeles with her husband and their dog, Kodak.

Website
www.austinirving.com

Instagram
@austin.irving

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