Project Statement
A Curious Dance is a series of large-format photographs based on gesture drawings of female psychiatric patients at the Hospital de la Pitié-Salpêtrière in Paris, an institution made famous by Dr. Jean-Martin Charcot and his photographs of “hysterical” women. The sketches, created by Dr. Paul Gachet, drew upon recognizable models of physical form and expression from art history, and were used to create supposed case studies of the postures of the insane. However, the drawings lack detail and the poses are gestural and ambiguous. To the modern eye, these could be drawings of dancers.
For this body of work I collaborated with professional and amateur dancers, photographing them as they moved through the poses in the drawings, investigating the movements of Gachet’s women. The resulting photographs attempt to convey feeling more than description, uncertainty more than definition.
Figure 3b, 2014, archival inkjet print, 40x50"
Figure 3a, 2014, archival inkjet print, 40x50"
Figure 3c, 2014, archival inkjet print, 40x50"
Figure 1, 2014, archival inkjet print, 40x50"
Figure 2, 2014, archival inkjet print, 40x50"
Figure 4, 2014, archival inkjet print, 40x50"
Installation at GRIN Providence, 2014. South Bell pictured on counter.