by Daniela Mericio
_
Photographs with soft edges, where the presences are elusive, immersed in an indefinite time. The inner state of mind imposes itself on the external reality, transforming it into a vision between the oneiric and the fantastic, sometimes disquieting, often astonishing. Sarah Moon, master of contemporary photography, is the protagonist, in Milan, of two complementary exhibitions: Time at work at the Fondazione Prada and From One Season to another at the Armani Silos. As the titles indicate, time is a central dimension in the work of the French photographer, it is recollection, memory, narration. The shots let you guess a before and after beyond the pictured moment and the passage of time is made evident also by the shooting and the chosen post-production techniques.
Born in France in 1941, Marielle Warin grew up in England, where the family took refuge to escape Nazism. In the ’60s she did modelling between London and Paris with the name Marielle Hadengue before moving on to the other side of the lens and adopting the pseudonym with which she is now known all over the world. She started with fashion photography in 1968 but she turned its language away from the cliché of the bright and glossy photos typical of the field, opting for a pictorial and romantic style that would mature with years. She created campaigns for big brands like Cacharel, Dior, Yamamoto, Comme de Garçons Issey Miyake. The images, although taken in a studio, seem indefinite apparitions. They are inspired by photography from the past and portraits of dreamy women from 19th-century. Since the mid-1980s, Moon has increasingly focused on research and introspection. She privileges black and white, which she describes as the colour of memory and fiction. The subjects, in addition to phantom human figures, are animals, trees, landscapes filtered by a personal vision that has little to do with “objective” reality and that seems to draw on symbolic and unconscious suggestions.
Some fashion photographs are exhibited in the wide lounges of the Armani Silos: large-format colour prints follow one another along the walls together with birds and still life of flowers. They seduce the visitor without attacking him, thanks to their subdued tones, the pale colours and the soft edges. The models look like two-dimensional paper figures, dolls of uncertain identity, on which someone seems to have applied clothes, almost for fun. Ethereal figures with faces often hidden by hands or hats, on which the garments stand out at their best, such as the golden yellow clothes or the large polka dots in two famous photos. Curated by Moon herself, the exhibition includes 170 images, from the mid-70s to the present: the order is not chronological, but follows a poetic flow, combining colour with smaller black and white prints that belong to the personal research of artist.
On this last aspect of his work is focused the more intimate exhibition at the Sozzani Foundation: 90 works (1995-2018), of which only a couple in colour, lead us into a fairy-tale universe, often distressing, made of dark landscapes, industrial or marine, whose horizon seems to delimit a border that overlooks the unknown. Puzzling animals, flights of elusive birds, fashion shots with veiled and mysterious women populate a surreal world, in which nightmares alternate with dreams. Long and obvious grains create nebulous atmospheres. The contours are gentle thanks to the soft focus effect that softens contrasts, making the face of a model or the foliage of a tree almost impalpable.
Even the most defined photographs are covered by light tricks, overexposure and dense shadows. Often torn by scratches, “stained” by patches, framed by visible margins. Manipulations that create an ancient, primitive effect, to show the imprints of time, the signs of decadence on a material destined to fade. They look like old photographs pulled out of a dusty trunk. Like the selection of Polaroid on show, which the photographer tells of having found in a drawer, corroded and faded by the years. Those of Sarah Moon are imperfect images, but full of emotionality, Shot following an intuition, listening to the echo of something coming from within, result of unexpected coincidences, of an emotion that meets reality and creates a representation transporting it in the field of fiction. “I’m not capable of being a reporter,” Moon admitted in a famous interview.
Sarah Moon is also known for videos, advertising films and documentaries. Two are on display at the Sozzani Foundation: There is something about Lillian (2001), dedicated to the photographer Lillian Bassman and the short film Contacts (1995). Even the double exposure is among the “magic” used by the artist, just look at the small format photographs of another series, Danse, Danse: each frame captures a different movement and the succession of prints creates a cinematic effect. The photograph of Sarah Moon crystallizes an instant by extracting it from the temporal flow, insinuating the existence of a story that is the task of the spectator to imagine and which the artist just suggests.
The exhibitions:
Sarah Moon – Time at work
Fondazione Sozzani, Milano
Until January 6th, 2019
Every day, 10:30 am – 7:30 pm / Wednesday and Thursday, 10:30 am – 9:00 pm
Saturday, Sunday and bank holidays: 5 € Reduced 3 € (6-26 yo)
Free entrance from Monday to Friday
http://fondazionesozzani.org/it/in-corso/time-at-work
Sarah Moon – From one season to another
Armani Silos, Milano
Via Bergognone 40
Until January 6th, 2019
Wednesday to Sunday: 11:00 am – 7:00 pm
https://www.armani.com/silos/it/exhibition/sarah-moon-from-one-season-to-another/
October 26, 2018
