David Trautrimas' newest series of austere photographs, The Spyfrost Project, have left me awestruck. A pastiche of pieced-together landscapes serve as a backdrop to dismembered appliances, which dominate a deserted scene. Though there are hints of familiarity (of Canadian scenery and household objects), these works leave the viewer with an overall sense of disorientation and mystery.

Trautrimas has exhibited extensively nationally and internationally since graduating from OCAD in 2003. His industrial photographs were part of the exhibition Empire of Dreams at the Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art in June 2010. The Spyfrost series will be featured in the June issue of Walrus magazine, and the upcoming issue of B&W/COLOR magazine. Look for Trautrimas' past three series across the 300 TTC television screen system this May as part of Contact 2011.

In The Spyfrost Project, photographer David Trautrimas hypothesizes the origins of iconic modern appliances by reassembling them into top secret, Cold War era military outposts. These skunkwork structures, hybrids of both machinery and architecture, stand as colossal, mysterious ancestors to common household objects such as refrigerators, lawnmowers and washing machines.