Sophie Hatier presents at the Trapèze Gallery in Paris images taken during many trips to Iceland between 2016 and 2019.
“The Origin of the World” is the title we could give to all of the photos on display here. Igneous rock, magma, glaciers, waterways, lava, mudflows, geysers : on an island over there in Iceland, Sophie Hatier photographed the creation of the Earth.
In this Anthropocene Era that is disrupting the planet’s ecosystem as glaciers melt and rising waters threaten cities like Dhaka and New York and forests go up in flames in Siberia and the Amazon, the artist wanted to depict the primordial beauty of our planet ravaged by humanity.
In radical solitude, only day and night amid the elements, making the effort to achieve complete immersion, she captured with her lens this primal nature, ever changing from time immemorial.
We are astonished to discover the rocky power of these landscapes. Their strength derives from an almost abstract arrangement of shapes and colors.
Sophie Hatier, after photographing landscapes all over the world, journeyed to Iceland. It was a decisive encounter in her photography career and compelled her to decipher what nature’s spectacle offers in terms of quasi-abstract lines and pictorial subject matter.
Black rock sliced by the whiteness of the glacier spreading out like a Matisse carving with the horizontal bright blue band of a stream overhung by the mountain’s inky darkness.
Sensual, practically carnal, material is so evident that sometimes we might think the artist must have used a knife and thick oils to paint the landscapes she beheld with her own eyes. Then we think of Riopelle’s abstract canvasses or Fautrier’s paste. The unsettling intermingling of photography and painting can also be seen as the fleeting wisps of volcanic steam and smoke that drape the ravines seem to be rendered in white pastel.
Milky, diaphanous faces – timeless faces – harmoniously dot and soften the starkness of these original landscapes, becoming landscapes themselves. The figure’s nudity responds to the harsh nakedness of the mountain.
Danièle Rousselier
Filmmaker, writer, and diplomat
Practical information :
Sophie Hatier : Loin des jardins, Islande
Galerie du Trapèze 19, rue de Poitou 75003 Paris (rearward)
From November 19th to November 30th, 2019
Opening on Tuesday November 19th, 2019 from 6pm to 10pm
Opening hours : free entrance everyday from 2:30pm to 7:30pm
www.sophiehatier.com
instagram : parisletrapezelive
Information
Galerie du Trapèze (sur cour)
19, rue de Poitou 75003 Paris, France
November 19, 2019 to November 30, 2019
