INSIGHTS_09 — Inside Out
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You might have heard expressions such as ‘your surroundings tell a lot about yourself’ at some point in your life. This relationship between space and individual has been analysed by different authors, artists and filmmakers. We find some examples in Edward Hopper’s introspective paintings or Pedro Almodóvar's complex family structures in his films.
Planning and constructing images is a recurrent practice in contemporary photography. It allows the artists to have full control over their messages and direct them to make the viewers understand the full picture. By the construction of a scene, images are able to transmit a whole new spectrum of feelings, unstable situations and suggest complex states of mind.
Jaime Welsh photographs are strongly influenced by cinema and the possibility of the medium to construct images. By exploring the formal relationship between humans and the architectural space, his works evoque the so-called psychological interiority where subjects seem to exist outside our reality.
Each image presents a scene enclosed by an austere and quite uncomfortable architecture that transmits an oddly artificial vision of reality. The use of solid and clean spaces give the viewer a sensation of weight in the room and the characters become authoritative figures. Jaime’s interests revolve around the understanding of how we perceive space and how this is able to express a wide range of feelings such as alienation, loneliness and entrapment.
Houston-based photographer Austin Cullen has always been fascinated by how museums portray the American environment and how the use of artificial elements act as guides to understand the natural landscape. This contradiction is what he uses to analyse and comprehend the complex relationship between people and environment.
In order to understand the constructed qualities of the interior spaces of museums, Austin presents a distorted and simplified vision of nature. The ambiguity that comes from that connection reveals the fabrication of the image and how these institutional places teach us about the environment, but at the same time separate us from it.
We cannot deny that Patty Carroll’s images are constructed. They constitute an extensive collection of still-life images immersed in an uncanny narrative. Inside her rooms we always find a solitary figure of a woman surrounded by domestic furniture and appliances.
Being closed at home during the pandemic has been an overwhelming experience for a lot of people around the world. With her photographs, Carroll shows how our places that are supposed to transmit comfort and safety have become a metaphor for our internal psychology.
Known for his detailed staged images, Ole Marius Joergensen accentuates the existence of a dualism between the rural and urban world. He grew up in rural Norway influenced by American movies and the mysterious aura of the outskirts of big cities.
His passion about film inspired him to create that characteristic nostalgic light that accompanies an ethereal atmosphere that fills his scenes. In this particular series, inspired by childhood memories, Ole invites the viewer to an intimate universe with a unique narrative where tension, fear and mystery come together.
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Jaime Welsh (b. 1994, Portugal) is a London-based artist and photographer.
His ambiguous scenes rely on the characters that he previously shape. Driven by his interest on the materiality, ‘For Laura’ conveys the strong physicality of the figures in relation with the austere architectural spaces.
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Austin Cullen (Houston, TX, United States) is a photographer and independent publisher.
Austin has always been fascinated on how the museums framed the American landscape. He explores the way museum’s display the natural world and how these affect on the general perception of the environment.
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Patty Carroll (Chicago, IL, United States) is a photographer known for her use of highly intense, saturated colour photographs since the 1970's.
Anonymous Women is one of her most recent projects where she addresses women and their complicated relationships with the domestic life. Camouflage works as a dark and humorous game of hide-and-seek between the spectator and the women.
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Ole Marius Joergensen (b. 1976, Norway) is an artist based in Asker, Norway.
With a strong background in film, Ole takes inspiration from the rural life, the popular narratives and storytelling from authors such as Steven Spielberg or Stephen King. He stimulates the mystery on his works by the use of colour and theatrical light.
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INSIGHTS is the an initiative by Conceptual Projects that puts the spotlight on artists’ narratives. In Conceptual Projects, we truly believe that collaboration is essential for success and visibility on these days. INSIGHTS was created to bring together photography based projects that explore similar areas of investigation, initiating dialogues between artists and their projects.
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Images courtesy of:
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Text by:
Juan Blasco — Founder & Curator of Conceptual Projects
