Viviane Sassen
Wednesday, 12 September 2012
Work from Parasomnia.
“The title of the series Parasomnia alludes to sleep disorders and occurrences of anomalous and unusual actions. The body of work engages with our perception of the world and weaves elements of fine art, fashion and documentary generating something new: bold and perplexing, colourful yet serious, lucid and enigmatic. The visual constructions highlight the collaborations between the embodied nature of the subjects and Sassen’s presence as a photographer.
They are playful and skilful manipulations of the physical body to symbolise moments of ambiguity and disorientation. Her images exude a vibrant dreamlike force which is immediate yet; leaves open a space to interpret happenings and occurrences. Within the images resides a latent force of sculptural stasis: the power of the body and the world it is held in. In Sassen’s Parasomnia, as with dreams, we are left in a place of uncertainty with an insistence on our own imaginative response…” – Crawford Art Gallery Cork