Aurora Burnett Kuhn

The Residue of Intimacy

 

Exhibition Date

27 March > 4 May 2025

Opening Reception

Thursday 27 March 2025, 6 > 8PM


 Visual Rating 100%

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In The Residue of Intimacy, Aurora Burnett Kuhn explores the intersection of darkroom photography and intimacy, examining the lingering presence of touch, memory, and desire. For Aurora, the darkroom is not merely a site of production but a space of devotion—an active collaborator in the act of making.

Desire plays a central role in Aurora’s work, both in subject and methodology. She has documented the body of her boyfriend Kirill on 35mm film, then revisiting these images in the darkroom, where memory and longing take material form. Inspired by filmmaker Luca Guadagnino and photographer Man Ray, Aurora abstracts the human figure, fragmenting it into textures of skin, folds of fabric, and fleeting impressions of presence.

The darkroom’s red glow mirrors the warmth of intimacy, transforming photography into an act of preservation and performance. Imperfection becomes intrinsic to the work, echoing the nature of love—fluid, evolving, and deeply felt. The lingering residue of intimacy is at the core of her images, where textures, dust marks, and the handprints left from hours of printing become as significant as the images themselves. Through this process, Aurora’s work intertwines labour and intimacy, allowing the physical handling of the paper to shape and warp the final print, embedding emotion into every layer of the image. Each photograph carries the physical traces of its own creation.

Aurora Burnett Kuhn's practice explores darkroom photography as an intimate, tactile process. Her work captures the traces of touch, memory, and desire, with each print bearing physical imprints of its making. Abstraction and imperfection mirror the fluid nature of love, transforming photography into a meditation on presence and longing.




IMAGES > Aurora Burnett Kuhn, The Residue of Intimacy, 2024, Digital cropped image of silver gelatine test strip. Courtesy of the artist. > Aurora Burnett Kuhn, Waster, 2023. Courtesy of the artist.