DANIEL KARIKO
Where Will You Spend Eternity, and Other Stories.
«The need to adapt ourselves to the place we inhabit has been largely overshadowed by the urge to adapt the world to ourselves. This continuing series of photographic work attempts to forge a dialogue between the man-affected landscape and the idealized presentation of a landscape created for purposes of habitation, or simply, entertainment.
This group of photographs investigates the commoditization of landscape. Photographed in various locations and seemingly unconnected, these images range from humorous to ironic. Some photographs present strictly fake-as-real landscape, and others discuss the consumption of the world that surrounds us.
We often observe our landscape through the pre-established cultural filters, and apply our idealistic expectations to our surroundings. Often, man-affected landscape is idealistically natural, as found in gardens, parks, and other tourist destinations, and therefore maintained and presented to us to enjoy it and consume it. In other cases, we adapt the landscape that surrounds us to our own idea of “natural” space, this often resulting in what Umberto Eco refers to as Hyperreality.
This body of work started initially as a form of travelogue, and evolved into the search for patterns, trends, and simulacra in order to highlight the space between the exploitation and romanticization of nature».