Arden Kelley is a senior, graduating with a double major in Public Health and Studio Art, with a concentration in photography.

My artistic practice focuses on investigating every day banality. This series examines buildings previously thought of as touchstones of local communities forgotten after Hurricane Katrina. Having fallen into disrepair, each building has been changed both by human and natural intervention. Plants grow through the windows, and the cracks of doors, winding up the exteriors, meeting with graffiti and broken glass. My hope is that with this project, I can honor the locations and their previous inhabitants by changing the way that one views them in daily life.

As a whole, the collection of images is comprised of buildings and locations used to care for their direct communities. The abandonment of these facilities is what is difficult to see in just one photograph. So, each piece stacks cut and collaged black and white photographs transferred onto plexi glass that are then laser cut. This process enables one to see beyond the exterior of the building into either the interior, or small details that are easily missed. The space that the plexi provides gives depth for the viewer to interpret what is being seen.