Faith:
strong belief, esp. without proof
Every
day, all over the world people are silently disappearing.
When an event goes unwitnessed, undocumented it may
become almost an act of faith to believe it could
be so.
My practice incorporates photography, painting, video,
and dark room installations.
This
body of work entitled, Whatever Happened to you? explores
the phenomenon of the missing person. Using models
and settings I recreate and reconstruct scenarios,
atmospheres from both missing person’s reports
and fictional stories.
My practice reflects these incomplete narratives.
Considering the moments before a disappearance occurs,
time which is hidden from the world.
Voyeur: Old French definition, one who lies in wait
Constructing
these scenes I am placing myself in the position of
the voyeur. Although my images are fictitional constructs,
imaginings, the subject matter is not, it is real.
The issues of this reality cannot be ignored. These
disappearances may have devastating affects or, undetected,
unnoticed no effect at all. Both scenarios equally
grave.
I am attempting to reveal hidden truths with the use
of (fictional) drama.
Possibility of movement
The
images are constructed in a dramatic fashion simply
because the situation and subject matter is in itself
is dramatic. There is never the less a considered
aesthetic and an anticipation of violence or force;
however there are no (simulated) marks of aggression
on the body, no blood, no wounds. The figures show
signs of life, they are still breathing. In that sense
I am endeavouring to avoid the sensationalistic.
In leaving the figures alive, breathing. I wish to
suggest the possibility of time and movement outside
of the stilled image, the possibility of a continuum.
The
impossible gaze
The
gaze is mute, the image becomes the voice. A camera
bares witness to the moment of catastrophic change.
It is the look, of the ever absent third party.
The impossible gaze.
The protagonist is never shown. I have no interest
in adding to their power.
This series is; a visualisation of shock, the impossible
longing to prevent an event, to freeze time. It is
my gaze.
