Multimedia artist Malon Kennedy Jr. says being completely alone can make people feel funny things. For example, sometimes he is struck by the “beauty of solitude;” that feeling when he sees an empty downtown building washed in early morning sunlight.
Those are the moments Kennedy, 22, attempts to capture in his photography. In his videography, however, Kennedy’s take on solitude is a little darker.
“With my filmmaking I tend to focus mostly on the day-to-day ill side-effects of solitude,” he says. “Being by yourself, being inside your own head, the weird things you can conjure up when nothing is even there.”
In that solitary space, Kennedy also says it’s easier to recognize his personal flaws -- especially since he’s living on his own for the first time. Kennedy explores all these emotions in an upcoming show at OPEN Gallery -- a joint residence and exhibition space for local artists -- fittingly called “Flaws.”
The show opens on Saturday. It is a joint exhibition with Kennedy and fellow artist Atlas Cheshire. Between them, about 20 pieces will be on display including photography, short films, sculpture and paintings.
Cheshire’s contribution to the co-exhibition will have a few pieces -- some watercolors and minimalistic drawings -- that examine his own flaws, as well as his life with dissociative identity disorder, which often leads him to feel isolated.
“The majority of the pieces that I’m going to be focusing on for this will actually be silhouette pieces,” Cheshire, 18, says. “In the head area they have a circle cut out that says certain things that I think or I feel, but I don’t usually disclose.”
Things like, “Your opinion scares me,” or “I made this all at the last second.”
Ultimately, he hopes his art will show how someone who appears “well-constructed” on the outside “can actually have some sort of storm going on on the inside,” which is something Kennedy has grappled with as well.
“I’ve been pretty much trying to get a feel for what it’s like to live on my own, out of the nest as it were,” Kennedy says. “All of the mistakes I have made, I guess, all the flaws I’ve realized I have as an individual person.”
“Flaws” opens Saturday, October 15. It will be on view until November 15.