Dolores

Dolores is a photographic series made in London on a late afternoon, in conjunction with The Eliot Twins series. The photographs have been taken with a Lomo camera, using out-of-date film and the available light. There is contrast in the twin motion of light and shadow, the blurring and distorting motion of light. In its motion, light draws brushstrokes against the shadows. Like in The Eliot Twins series, the figure adverts the viewer to the deeply intimate charge of the photographs. The doll is, in fact, a specially made gift I have received from my mother when I was young, one that is mysterious and magical at the same time. It translates, on an emotional level, the dramatic relation between mother and daughter, which can often fall into excessively emotional gestures, reactions and performances. As such, it is a multi-layered expression of authority and feminity, fragility and grace, innocence and narcissism, closeness and separation, intimacy and strangeness, empathy and sensitivity. The photographs reveal the emotional intensity associated with memories and our essentially affective nature.

C-type prints on Fuji paper, variable dimensions, 2014. This series was exhibited in 2014 at art dealer Megan Piper’s private space in London, as curated by Lou Proud.