fbpx
  • Subscribe & Support
  • Sign up for Free Newsletter
  • Print Edition
    • Get Home Delivery
    • Read ePaper Online
    • Newsstand Locations
  • HV1 Magazines
  • Contact
    • Advertise
    • Customer Support
    • Submit A News Tip
    • Where’s My Paper?
  • Manage HV1 Account
  • Free HV1 Trial
  • Movie Night Gift Subscription
Hudson Valley One
  • News
    • Schools
    • Business
    • Sports
    • Crime
    • Politics & Government
  • What’s Happening
    • Calendar Of Events
    • Featured Events
      • Art
      • Books
      • Kids
      • Lifestyle & Wellness
      • Food & Drink
      • Music
      • Nature
      • Stage & Screen
  • Opinions
    • Letters
    • Columns
    • Editorials
  • Local
    • Special Sections
    • Local History
  • Marketplace
    • All Classified Ads
    • Help Wanted
    • Post a Classified Ad
  • Obituaries
  • Podcast
  • Log In
No Result
View All Result
  • News
    • Schools
    • Business
    • Sports
    • Crime
    • Politics & Government
  • What’s Happening
    • Calendar Of Events
    • Featured Events
      • Art
      • Books
      • Kids
      • Lifestyle & Wellness
      • Food & Drink
      • Music
      • Nature
      • Stage & Screen
  • Opinions
    • Letters
    • Columns
    • Editorials
  • Local
    • Special Sections
    • Local History
  • Marketplace
    • All Classified Ads
    • Help Wanted
    • Post a Classified Ad
  • Obituaries
  • Podcast
  • Log In
No Result
View All Result
Hudson Valley One
No Result
View All Result

The otherwordly art of Kahn & Selesnick

by Rob Rubsam
April 1, 2016
in Art & Music
0

[portfolio_slideshow id=7921]

 

There’s something about good art that takes your brain and tears it wide open, forcing a space big enough for the artist’s vision. This is how I think of the work of duo Kahn & Selesnick. If one comes at it with a small mind, expecting merely photography or painting or sculpture, you won’t know what to do. Perhaps best, it’s graspable by an untrained mind, so long as that mind is open.

I met the team in Nicholas Kahn’s cramped Hudson apartment, the studio where they do much of their work. The walls were lined with pieces, finished and not, and it felt small for the widescreen visions of them who work in it. Kahn and Richard Selesnick, both 49, were paired as freshman roommates at Washington University in St. Louis, studying art and interested in what Kahn calls “fictional documentary.” For Kahn, this arose from having a father who served as an army photographer during World War II. Selesnick was born in England and moved to America at a young age, though his time there seemed to have left an impact on his interests.

“In England they have these maps called ‘ordnance survey maps’ that always have antiquities of every kind marked on them,” Selesnick recounts, “and I used to love poring over these things and trying to walk to the various things where there’d be a funny mound, or a stone circle or a standing stone.” “Some of our first photos were faked miniature versions of stone circles,” adds Kahn. “We built these scenes to try and imagine that early Britain.”

After graduating from college in the mid-‘80s – Selesnick in London, Kahn in New York and New Jersey – the two kept in touch, and eventually made plans to travel to an artists’ colony in Cape Cod, drawn by the bleak images of the dunes and sea, and begin collaborating. They took up their present mantle in 1988, and have been using it ever since. For the past four years, and intermittently before, they have been Hudson Valley residents, with Selesnick in Rhinebeck and Kahn in the studio in Hudson.

“I think a big part of what we do is about the landscape,” says Selesnick, “so being somewhere where the landscape inspires us is kind of helpful and important.” This is reflected in the nature of much of their work: photography. Most collections, often woven together as part of a story, contain photographs composed of five lateral shots – similar to a vintage panoramic camera – with foregrounded figures and dense, swirling backgrounds. But both note that what they do is much more similar to painting or sculpting than normal photography. As Selesnick puts it, “I think we were always interested in trying to create something that wouldn’t be there otherwise.”

Page 1 of 2
12Next
Join the family! Grab a free month of HV1 from the folks who have brought you substantive local news since 1972. We made it 50 years thanks to support from readers like you. Help us keep real journalism alive.
- Geddy Sveikauskas, Publisher
Previous Post

Hyde Park unveils renovated FDR Museum

Next Post

Saugerties Day Camp opens season

Rob Rubsam

Related Posts

Woodstock gallery celebrates the life and art of Carol Zaloom
Art & Music

Woodstock gallery celebrates the life and art of Carol Zaloom

June 1, 2023
Legendary NYC avant-punk polymath performs live in Woodstock this Saturday
Art & Music

Legendary NYC avant-punk polymath performs live in Woodstock this Saturday

June 1, 2023
All the art events in Ulster County this week
Art & Music

All the art events in Ulster County this week

May 31, 2023
Century-old Woodstock music venue hosts open house this Saturday
Art & Music

Century-old Woodstock music venue hosts open house this Saturday

May 31, 2023
Ulster County live music guide: First week of June 2023
Art & Music

Ulster County live music guide: First week of June 2023

May 31, 2023
10 Don’t-Miss Events in the Hudson Valley, Aug 31 – Sept 6
Art & Music

Hudson Valley’s hottest art and craft fair returns this Memorial Day weekend

May 25, 2023
Next Post

Saugerties Day Camp opens season

Trending News

  • Victim’s mother was assured by Kingston school officials that her son would be safe, notice of claim now entered against the district 3.8k views
  • In Kingston, an apartment complex gets a long overdue name change 0.9k views
  • Who’s to blame for Kingston’s inadequate playing fields? Just ask the parents 862 views
  • Pride reaffirmed in New Paltz 817 views
  • At iPark 87, things do seem different this time 521 views
  • Vintage baseball game in Hudson Valley will play by 1800s rules 490 views

Weather

Kingston
◉
63°
Cloudy
5:22 am8:26 pm EDT
Feels like: 61°F
Wind: 9mph NE
Humidity: 70%
Pressure: 30.08"Hg
UV index: 0
SunMonTue
68/48°F
77/52°F
75/50°F
Weather forecast Kingston, New York ▸

Subscribe

Independent. Local. Substantive. Subscribe now.

  • Subscribe & Support
  • Sign up for Free Newsletter
  • Print Edition
  • HV1 Magazines
  • Contact
  • Manage HV1 Account
  • Free HV1 Trial
  • Movie Night Gift Subscription

© 2022 Ulster Publishing

No Result
View All Result
  • News
    • Schools
    • Business
    • Sports
    • Crime
    • Politics & Government
  • What’s Happening
    • Calendar Of Events
    • Featured Events
      • Art
      • Books
      • Kids
      • Lifestyle & Wellness
      • Food & Drink
      • Music
      • Nature
      • Stage & Screen
  • Opinions
    • Letters
    • Columns
    • Editorials
  • Local
    • Special Sections
    • Local History
  • Marketplace
    • All Classified Ads
    • Help Wanted
    • Post a Classified Ad
  • Obituaries
  • Podcast
  • Subscribe & Support
  • Contact Us
    • Customer Support
    • Advertise
    • Submit A News Tip
  • Print Edition
    • Read ePaper Online
    • Newsstand Locations
    • Where’s My Paper
  • HV1 Magazines
  • Manage HV1 Account
  • Log In
  • Free HV1 Trial

© 2022 Ulster Publishing