In the work of Paulina Otylie Surys everything is hushed but incisive. Every image is a sigh that conjures up virtual yet magical moments. It offers the velvety enigma of a story that reaches its equinox among limpid yet voiceless images that flit away, rather than plunge, into the abyss. Once again, it’s a question of slipping outside time on the wings of an instant of febrile duration. Ablaze, the throbbing breath dies down; the heart is laid bare. Incandescent emotions crepitate to the tune of hidden life, where everything is “pleasure, calm and opulence” (Baudelaire).*
Paulina Otylie Surys probes secret recesses. The desire seems fluid but it’s turned toward withdrawal. A taut arc bridges the reality and its rupture through a rearrangement of what, in other photographers, is superficially spontaneous and overly raw. Their outspoken insistence gives way in Surys’s work to the contemplativeness of erotic liturgies. The use of iconographic vocabulary of the senses produces a particularly physical effect.
Sometimes, however, the vision of a flesh-and-blood female is superseded by that of a mannequin in a sort of homage to Bellmer. The complete opposite of the living form, the “puppets on a string” block and destroy the narcissistic gaze of the voyeur.
Every time, emotion is subdued, yet devastating. The image strokes fantasies yet remains merely suggestive. Little is shown of the primal, enclosed area: glimpses of possible paradises vanish as quickly as they are perceived. Paulina Otylie Surys creates a private mythology that everyone carries within oneself or dreams of knowing.
* From “Invitation to Voyage”, translated by Richard Howard. — Trans.
EXHIBITION
England Fallen
Paulina Otylie Surys
From April 7th to May 8th, 2016
Nue Galerie
35, rue Lucien Sampaix
75010 Paris
France
Tel: 06 64 45 38 27
[email protected]
Tuesday – Saturday 2pm – 7pm
https://www.facebook.com/nuegaleriephotos
http://www.nuegalerie.com
http://paulinasurys.co.uk
