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Biography

Elaine Wannechko is a 32-year-old multidisciplinary artist currently working in photography, video, installation, and performance. In 2008 she received a project grant from the Alberta Foundation for the Arts for her MFA thesis exhibition entitled “Fluid Bodies,” which consists of 19 enlarged digital prints and two video installations. She received her Master of Fine Arts in drawing and intermedia at the University of Alberta.

In 2009 Wannachko worked in photography, performance, and installation. Recently she was the sponsored Local Emerging Artist for Exposure: Edmonton’s Queer Art & Culture Festival. Her involvement in the T. L. Cowan’s Twisted She Project, an interdisciplinary collaboration of six artists, is her most recent substantial endeavor. The project was featured in VisualEYEZ 2009: Canada’s Annual Performance Art Festival at Latitude 53 Art Gallery, Edmonton Alberta.

Artist Statement

These images originated from research for The Twisted She Project, reflecting the spoken word by T. L. Cowan that includes themes of perversion, popularity, and pathology. I took some of that project’s research to develop images for the series entitled "Food Baby."

Food Baby consists of twelve close-up, abstract digital images that are sexually suggestive and humanistic. In this series, as with some of my other photographic and video work, I use food to suggest the physical and/or psychological body. As well as having humanistic qualities the subjects in the photographs take on their own life in the water. Like any living organism, they float, suggest movement, and expel bubbles of air. The titles further develop the subjects within the images as living things. Together the images of Food Baby tell a story that is intimate and contemplative while leaving room for viewers to bring their own narratives to bear.