Maggie TAYLOR is a pioneer of digital photomontage. In the 1990s, she adopted digital technology and played with the possibilities of Photoshop. His creative universe is characterized by his taste for surrealism and the supernatural. She draws her inspiration from the tales of Hans Christian ANDERSEN, Lewis CARROLL and Charles PERRAULT. This reappropriation of tales and legends is reminiscent of the work of another American: Walt DISNEY. The universe of Maggie TAYLOR is more disturbing than the ones of the famous director, also playing on the absurd and the feeling of loneliness, themes that can be compared to those of René MAGRITTE.
Maggie TAYLOR is fond of color, animals and 19th century characters. She merges them and arranges them in landscapes where trees, boats and clouds become vehicles of the imagination. Branches and roots seem to branch out in a manner analogous to our thoughts. The viewer is then drawn into reveries populated by fantastic animals and malicious leprechauns.
At Maggie TAYLOR’s in That Good Night: the uprooted tree floats in the middle of the night. We spot a swing that can symbolize the idea of play and an imagination specific to childhood. This is a precious key to understanding your work. The tree is a playground, climbing to the branches amounts to accessing a space where the spectator can reconnect with the marvelous. In this respect the treetops are like clouds, a means of escape and creation. where children build their cabins and invent characters.
The Dryads & Fauns series of photographs draws on classical European painting. Cássio VASCONCELLOS has produced photomontages by combining tropical forest landscapes from his series "A Picturesque Voyage through Brazil" with academic nudes from the 19th century. He will search in the collections of the largest museums in the world (MoMA, Musée d’Orsay, Museum of Fine Arts of Rio de Janeiro ...) as well as within private art collections. Through these photomontages Cássio VASCONCELLOS personifies woods and watercourses and reappropriates a pictorial heritage while paying homage to it.
In Jerry UELSMANN’s photographs, roots play a central role. The house or the nest, symbols of home, births, life, always depend on the roots. The latter dig into the ground for their subsistence. However, the basement is traditionally associated with the kingdom of the dead. Many civilizations, including our own, bury their dead. By giving this primordial role to the roots, Jerry UELSMANN emphasizes the idea of the cycle of life and the interdependence between the dead and the living.
