Marie Angeletti – Mixed Feelings : Crap = Good

Marie Angeletti – Mixed Feelings

18 Jul, 2012 | Author Pieterjan Grandry

Marie Angeletti uses photography to re-present and re-frame discordant yet familiar genres of representation. A seemingly wide range of subjects is subsumed by the arrangement and repetition of images, suggesting new readings and interpretations. The photographs themselves are subjected to a number of processes; objects and subjects are photographed, the resultant images re-photographed, scanned, in some places abstracted. This confuses both the original source and author of the image – are we looking at archival images, are these images taken or appropriated by Angeletti?

Angeletti finds her images from a range of sources, from museum display cases, private settings, personal portraits, and interiors. What binds them together are the decisions behind the display, both within the image space and within the gallery space. The physical presentation of the works stresses the importance in the moment, or experience of looking. Images are presented in pairs or groups of three, confusing or abandoning hierarchies, asking the viewer to observe similarities and repetitions, to select and compare works. A work such as AD, Lipchitz – Buquet?(2012) is a key example of display decisions. The work is a photograph of the last page from an auction house catalogue in which the lamp has been squeezed in after an oversight by the editor. An obligatory dialogue is enforced between the lamp and figurine. The show forces relationships, asks questions of the order of images, and presents dialogues that might normally not be found.

A key element to the presentation of these works is the black rail that runs around the gallery. It is presented to create a single installation, and implies mobility and interchangeability of the images. Just as the juxtaposition and space between each photograph is essential, so is a consideration of the architectural space.

The exhibition title, Mixed Feelings, speaks of the ambiguities Angelettis work gives rise to. She does not seek to discover a new vein of photography, but presents an array of styles and possible conversations. The status of photography in this age is addressed; what role can it play, what meaning can be assigned when context and content can be so easily edited and reframed. Ultimately Angeletti does not assure us or provide the answers, leaving fragments of doubt for the viewer to contend with.

Marie Angeletti, b.1984, lives and works London. Recent exhibitions include Marie Angeletti/Mathis Gisser, Vitrine Gallery, London, 2012, I can’t think when I’m lying down, Moabit Badehaus, Berlin, 2012, New Contemporaries, ICA London/S1 Artspace, Sheffield, 2011. Upcoming exhibitions include the Daegu Biennale, South Korea, 2012.