Here is my reaction to seeing a few of Laetitia's photographs back in December of 2015. The images are from her current exhibition at Claire Oliver Gallery that runs through April 9th, 2016 Claire Oliver is located at 513 W 26th St. NYC
I first headed to Claire Oliver Gallery because of a video Claire had posted of gallery artist Laetitia Soulier creating a piece of her Fractal Architectures series. It is a timed lapse video showing Laetitia making an architectural model for her photographs. If you know my work you know that I am a pushover for anything architectural. The models are finely crafted dollhouse like structures with fractal-designed motifs. I was struck by the superb craftsmanship and attention to detail given to each of the parts in the model. Soulier then incorporates photographs of children into photographs of the architectural models. The children appear Gulliverian in her Lilliputian interior spaces. The photographs are as eye-catching as they are intriguing, layering a striking visuality with a sense of psychological tension and mystery.
One of Soulier’s photographs The Square Roots 2 hangs in the stairwell of the gallery. It shows an interior space of a two-storied dwelling that is covered in a green fractal pattern. The structure is opened towards the viewer like a dollhouse. The viewer can even observe the floor joists between the floor of the second story and the ceiling of the first floor. A tree is growing in the second story space its roots lifting up the floorboards and penetrating down to the first floor. A boy of Gulliverian scale is resting his head on the floor of the second story with his feet warmly nestled on the first floor. A red wheelbarrow rests at the roots of the tree. The boy looks peaceful and is not disturbed by his overgrown size and his cramped dwelling. The organized design of the rooms and the green fractal pattern give this photograph a sense of calm to an otherwise uncomfortable situation. Unlike Alice’s Adventures the boy seems at ease with his outsized proportions.
Soulier’s The Matryoshka Dolls is the most striking of the photographic group. In the photograph a red haired girl with light blue eyes looks tentatively out towards the viewer. Her hands are extended outward holding hands of figures that cannot be seen by the viewer. She is dressed in a futuristic red garment. She is in the foreground of the photograph set against a red background with two rows of arcaded doors. The colors are vivid and intense with a fractal pattern inspired by Russian Matryoshka Dolls that gives the photo its title. The girl has a blank look on her face but it is as if she wants to say something she can’t. She is separated from the viewer by a handrail that seems to trap her in a world that is beautiful but possibly repressive. The girl seems trapped in a conformity that she does not understand as if she is unaware of any other reality.
One of Soulier’s photographs The Square Roots 2 hangs in the stairwell of the gallery. It shows an interior space of a two-storied dwelling that is covered in a green fractal pattern. The structure is opened towards the viewer like a dollhouse. The viewer can even observe the floor joists between the floor of the second story and the ceiling of the first floor. A tree is growing in the second story space its roots lifting up the floorboards and penetrating down to the first floor. A boy of Gulliverian scale is resting his head on the floor of the second story with his feet warmly nestled on the first floor. A red wheelbarrow rests at the roots of the tree. The boy looks peaceful and is not disturbed by his overgrown size and his cramped dwelling. The organized design of the rooms and the green fractal pattern give this photograph a sense of calm to an otherwise uncomfortable situation. Unlike Alice’s Adventures the boy seems at ease with his outsized proportions.
Soulier’s The Matryoshka Dolls is the most striking of the photographic group. In the photograph a red haired girl with light blue eyes looks tentatively out towards the viewer. Her hands are extended outward holding hands of figures that cannot be seen by the viewer. She is dressed in a futuristic red garment. She is in the foreground of the photograph set against a red background with two rows of arcaded doors. The colors are vivid and intense with a fractal pattern inspired by Russian Matryoshka Dolls that gives the photo its title. The girl has a blank look on her face but it is as if she wants to say something she can’t. She is separated from the viewer by a handrail that seems to trap her in a world that is beautiful but possibly repressive. The girl seems trapped in a conformity that she does not understand as if she is unaware of any other reality.
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