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Kristin Castenschiold's Artist Statement
Whether its photographs of dogs or toys, the work of Kristin Castenschiold always tells a story. She grew up in a small town in New Jersey, and has been raising Seeing Eye puppies and working with dogs for a long time. Kristin believes dogs play an important roll in society, helping people who are handicapped live out there lives independently, which is why they are mans best friend. She began with photographing children and their puppies, and exploring the connection the two share. Castenschiold photographed this bond between people and dogs in a forty-page photo essay about the process of becoming a Seeing Eye dog. This book documented every step of the process from birth, puppy raising and training to life with a blind person, with text written by her.
Kristin’s interest in dogs carried over into 2003, where she began a series of digital photographs of her dog, Sierra, dressed in costume. Sierra was incorporated into 20 famous artworks from “The Mona Lisa” to Warhol’s “Campbell Soup Cans.” With these pictures she created a children’s book, Sierra goes to the Museum, beginning with Sierra going to the MET, to explore the meaning of art. As Sierra merged with the artworks she told the story of art through her point of view. With each different artwork Kristin created, it became a challenge to learn the style of the artist and find a way to incorporate a dog into the picture. Her goal was to create a history of art that is fun and informative for a child, by comparing a child’s view of art, to that of a dog. These photographs also take on a deeper level for adults, as they begin to look closer and see hidden secrets revolving around the artists and styles of their artwork. This series got Kristin interested into ways of fooling the eye.
\This theme has carried over into her latest series of work involving toys. Kristin has always had a fascination with toys in today’s culture. She created miniature scenes for the action figures then photographed it. This process brought her back to her childhood, once again relying solely on her imagination to create a world that doesn’t exist. Kristin doesn’t just set up her toys in a way you would see a child play with toys, but instead like to create disturbing, messed up scenes that one would likely never imagine a toy in. She does not hide the fact that they are toys, but emphasis it with all their imperfections, like seam's and plastic texture. One great ability a toy holds is it’s symbolism for the truth. It is this symbolism that can make them more powerful then real objects. When one sees photographs of actors engaged in a murder, they will see its fake. A toy engaged in a scene like, a bloody plastic knife in the midst of footprints made by a toy boot surrounded by a lurking shadow, has an entirely different level of meaning. How could a child’s toy suddenly become so real, disturbing and threatening?
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