In the photograph “Two Glasses” at the Benjamin Mouly exhibition currently on display at the Galerie des Filles du Calvaire in Paris, the eye hovers over the fabric of a tight-fitting dress, revealing the movement of a woman’s left leg. Harmoniously balancing out the composition are two wine glasses. The fingers gripping the stems of the glasses parallel the folds of the dress. In 20th century art, the fold accompanied the body’s urges, which dictated composition. The viewer is tossed about as though aboard a boat on a stormy sea, from right to left, up and down. The photographs come one after the other, and the shape of a tire echoes the scarf around the neck of the subject in the next photograph, as well as the round shape of an object hanging on the wall. Mouly explores the relationship between the support/ surface of the subject, relief, fissures. The power of his compositions proves hypnotic through repetition and its twisting effect on the viewer. He removes the eye from its place of privilege, relocating the gaze, making it wander. It hangs in the folds of the dresses, in the still and moving lines like water trembling under the weight of a body. Lacking a center, Mouly creates mobile perspectives.
Read the full article on the French version of L’Oeil.
EXHIBITION
De Concert by Benjamin Mouly
Through June 20th, 2015
Galerie des Fillles du Calvaire
17 rue des Filles-du-Calvaire
75003 Paris
