ENG
In recent years Agnes Geoffray has created a series of highly charged nocturnal photographs, which are impregnated with evocative power and conjure dark associations. In these, time, place and circumstance are not indicated but left open to hypothesis. Permeated by a deep sense of disquiet and unease, these images function as fragments in a puzzle which may give clues about situations that may have gone or could go disturbingly - or even violently - wrong. Geoffray’s work has its conceptual roots in distressing news items, of the kind that do not make headlines. The foreboding content of these news items is then loosely ‘translated’ into powerful, deliberately ambiguous images in which a latent, suggestive narrative unfolds. Beneath what is visible within each image, a visual ‘double’ is brought to mind, which insinuates perturbing situations or circumstances. This particular image, entitled ‘Air’ (2007) and taken in almost complete darkness, depicts a slightly out-of-focus Gothic-style house bathed in an eerie, surreal, nocturnal blue light. Geoffray chose the house for its cinematographic qualities and the multiple references latent therein. On the right hand side of the image, a blinding flash of light coming from a seemingly unknown source lends the surroundings an even more eerie, threatening ‘air’. The scene is ghostly as it is enigmatic and the house seems suspended in a strange fluid-like space, almost as if it were immaterial. As with most of Geoffray’s photographs, nothing actually happens, but the potency of the image lies in its capacity to conjure multiple associations, giving the impression that something momentous or ominous will or has occurred. ‘Air’ can also be read as a prologue to an unknown event, nevertheless containing a presentiment of dramatic intensity. In that sense, all of Geoffray’s photographs can be seen latent places of becoming and spatial equivalents representing our childhood fears, or our worst adult nightmares. But apart from their sinister, immersive visual impact, Geoffray’s photographs ultimately open up a space for the imagination and for fiction, and in this space, the possibilities for interpretation are limitless.
- Katerina Gregos
In recent years Agnes Geoffray has created a series of highly charged nocturnal photographs, which are impregnated with evocative power and conjure dark associations. In these, time, place and circumstance are not indicated but left open to hypothesis. Permeated by a deep sense of disquiet and unease, these images function as fragments in a puzzle which may give clues about situations that may have gone or could go disturbingly - or even violently - wrong. Geoffray’s work has its conceptual roots in distressing news items, of the kind that do not make headlines. The foreboding content of these news items is then loosely ‘translated’ into powerful, deliberately ambiguous images in which a latent, suggestive narrative unfolds. Beneath what is visible within each image, a visual ‘double’ is brought to mind, which insinuates perturbing situations or circumstances. This particular image, entitled ‘Air’ (2007) and taken in almost complete darkness, depicts a slightly out-of-focus Gothic-style house bathed in an eerie, surreal, nocturnal blue light. Geoffray chose the house for its cinematographic qualities and the multiple references latent therein. On the right hand side of the image, a blinding flash of light coming from a seemingly unknown source lends the surroundings an even more eerie, threatening ‘air’. The scene is ghostly as it is enigmatic and the house seems suspended in a strange fluid-like space, almost as if it were immaterial. As with most of Geoffray’s photographs, nothing actually happens, but the potency of the image lies in its capacity to conjure multiple associations, giving the impression that something momentous or ominous will or has occurred. ‘Air’ can also be read as a prologue to an unknown event, nevertheless containing a presentiment of dramatic intensity. In that sense, all of Geoffray’s photographs can be seen latent places of becoming and spatial equivalents representing our childhood fears, or our worst adult nightmares. But apart from their sinister, immersive visual impact, Geoffray’s photographs ultimately open up a space for the imagination and for fiction, and in this space, the possibilities for interpretation are limitless.
- Katerina Gregos
