Stephanie Kirk’s Breakfast Serial-Pink seems an elaborate meal reminiscent of Amy Steven’s luscious pastry photographs while also referring to more deeply embedded traditions of artists like On Kawara who focus on repetition and daily routine. In actuality the meal is fairly simple and the stage well set. The image speaks to the universality of practices while highlighting a tendency to decorate, to glamorize. One could say of all art it is a documentation of human experience. One would be correct. And rather dull. But there is something about the personal chronicling that seems almost compulsive in a media driven culture where the Internet in all its marvels unifies us and makes it possible to know what strangers across the globe may have had for breakfast (if that is what one hopes to know). These images reflect a personal space and an intimate solitary routine documented without a lust show the world her personal life. Taking a picture of a daily practice entails more time than might be imagined. The routine separates the participant from the moment and the repetition of action and habit become a consideration all their own. The progress of the series documents Kirk’s reaction to the contamination of local water supply as she switches to paper plates and bottled water until the problem resolves itself.
Of the series Kirk says, “Breakfast is my favorite meal. I enjoy making it and eating it. I take time to read the detritus that builds up from mail delivery. These images are from Breakfast Serial, a series of images that I took over a year of making breakfasts. The breakfasts don’t vary much except to note the various seasons. I sit at the same place at the table and generally use the same placemat.”
To read the rest of her artist statement and see more of the series visit:
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