Chantal Maes
“That is the strangeness of language: it crosses the boundaries of the body, is at once inside and outside, and it sometimes happens that we don't notice the threshold has been crossed.”
― Siri Hustvedt, The Sorrows of an American
How can one express the extend of language and thought? How can one manifest the void that separates two persons? How can an image encapsulate the relationship and the world of language and thought between two human beings?
The object of my research is the manifestation of space of thought and language, the expression of the human Psyche: that formless intangible space where thoughts are projected. In order to achieve this, I use photography and video.
In the photographic series ‘INWARD WHISPERS’ (1997 - 1999), I observe the employees who work with the public in the specific environment of an airport watching for and capturing the moments where the mask of the public role these workers represent dissolves, and their connection with their inner world is all too briefly revealed.
In the series ‘TROPISMES’1 (2003 - ongoing), everything turns around the dialogue between two people, source of the developing psyche. I explore these “subterranean movements carried into the light”2 caused by other persons words.
The point of view, the distance and the format of the photographs contribute to the inclusion or exclusion of the spectator.
The videos, ‘TAKE A LOOK FROM THE INSIDE’3 (2003 - ongoing), translate the intense corporeal experience that words present for a person with a stutter. “The hesitating reading of texts is reflected by unequal, mumbling and bumpy movements of recording by the camera hold tied to the body. The recording follows the reading syllable by syllable. The camera makes the recording from the inside of the body. She isn’t a neutral spectator, but is intimately connected to the body language.” 4
1 Definition of tropism by Petit Robert dictionnay
Biology : The growth or movement of a living organism or anatomical structure toward or away from an external stimulus, such as light, heat, or gravity.
Figurative and Literary : Elementary reaction to an external cause; Very simple reflexif act. "Tropismes," by Nathalie Sarraute.
2 Nathalie Sarraute , « Conversation et sous-conversation » in L’ère du soupçon, 1956 (1st edition), Editions Gallimard,
Folio / essais, Paris, 1998, p. 102
3 Lecture psychodynamique, Françoise Estienne, 2003 and Lecture poétique, Christian Dotremont, «Qu’il nous arrive de bafouiller», 2004
4 Francis Smets, « Le corps anarchiste » about the artistic work of Chantal Maes
