A selection of work by Los Angeles-based artist Chris Engman, whose installations playfully examine the way we understand the world around us and specifically “the tension between illusion and materiality that [he sees] as intrinsic to the medium of photography”.

“In the piece titled Refuge, for example, the image of the wooded scene was printed onto over 150 pieces of paper and then physically cut and affixed to walls and objects within an architectural space. The room itself was then photographed and the resulting image printed onto a single sheet of photo paper. In the case of the former, the physical properties of paper are acknowledged. In the case of the latter (and this applies to the majority of photographs), everything about the presentation is designed to deny that the paper exists at all. What matters and is emphasized is the illusion, or, if you like, the lie.”

All images courtesy of the artist and Luis De Jesus Los Angeles.