Comfortably numb

The world is a somewhat hyperactive place, teeming with movement, noise and consumerism. So the individual's search for inner calm and stillness is becoming increasingly fruitless. In his Nirvana series, however, Mexican artist Fernando Montiel Klint seems to have bottled this elusive state - what he calls 'silence in the middle of chaos'. He takes this abstract idea and manifests it quite literally by photographing a raft of characters frozen in the most peculiar poses - perched on top of their desk or being propped up by a broom - in their own contextual settings, complete with mood lighting. In each shot he's telling another little story of personal 'anaesthesia'. It's all a little Zen of course, but delightfully oddball as well.

Holly Kyte