Sabine Mirlesse
As if it should have been a quarry
I am invested in how a single image can move the viewer to a memory of his/her own –how the familiarity of the photographed can work as a trigger for one’s past and draw it into the present creating a very immediate experience of the passage of time. In noticing those moments I think we can identify our own transcendence – we can simultaneously have one foot in one previous life and another foot in the present one. I choose to use photographs to explore the person as landscape, and landscape as visage, holding histories as complex and unique as the experiences of any one individual, holding layers of years and weather gone-by.
The series entitled As if it should have been a quarry and named for the American poet Robert Frost’s 1954 poem “Directive”, was shot this past year in Iceland –a country in the middle of the Atlantic ocean positioned directly above a continental divide, making it the site of frequent seismic and volcanic activity. Inspired by the story of a small village there whose inhabitants dug themselves out of the ash of a volcano that erupted without warning one January morning in 1973, this body of work seeks to investigate the way in which one reconciles oneself to impermanence through living with a continuity that suggests the infinite, and how a piece of land can be a reflection of one’s countenance and vice versa, like maps in conversational flux with one another.
Through considering the passage of time in its relation to both physical and emotional space is to allow for an innate metaphysical inquiry to be explored—that of our own vulnerability and survival as possibly found in the landscapes that grow us into being.
Sabine Mirlesse
Currently lives in Paris, France
+33.6.33.22.78.13 / +1.212.810.6281
Education
2008 – 2010 MFA Photography and Related Media, Parsons the New School for Design, New York, New York, USA
2004 – 2008 BA English Literature and World Religions (double major), McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
2006 — 2007 Universiteit van Amsterdam, Amsterdam, Netherlands
Awards
2009, ’11, ‘12 Joop Swart Masterclass Nominee, World Press Photo, Amsterdam, Netherlands
2008 – 2010 The New School University Graduate Dean Scholarship, New York, New York
Residencies
2011 Samband Íslenskra Myndlistarmanna (SÍM), The Association of Icelandic Visual Artists, Reykjavik, Iceland
2010 Atelier de Visu, Marseille, France. Organized and led by Magnum Agency photographer Antoine d’Agata
Group Exhibitions
2011
‘What matters now? Proposals for a New Front Page,’ Aperture Gallery, New York, New York
‘Pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis,’ SÍM House, Reykjavik, Iceland
‘Studio Vortex (hors les murs)’ Galerie Montgrand, Marseille, France
‘Harmonium’, SÍM House, Reykjavik, Iceland
2010
‘Capture’ curated by Michael Foley, The powerHouse Arena, Brooklyn, New York
Parsons Graduate Photography Thesis Exhibition, Arnold and Sheila Aronson Gallery, New York, New York
Virion Exhibition, H-Gallery and The Edge, Brisbane, Australia
‘Projections’ Atelier de Visu, Marseille, France.
2009
‘Same Difference’, Three Gallery, New York, New York
‘The Untitled’ curated by George Pitts and Simone Douglas, Three Gallery, New York, New York
Publications (Images)
2012
British Journal for Photography, London, England, feature on series ‘As if it should have been a quarry’
GUP Magazine, Amsterdam, Netherlands – feature on series ‘Preventricular Arrythmia’
La Lettre de la Photographie, Paris, France – portfolio feature, series ‘Going home/dust/ashes’
Site95, New York, USA, “Artist of the Week” feature on series ‘As if it should have been a quarry’
2011
DER GREIF, photography magazine, Munich, Germany Issue #5, series ‘As if it should have been a quarry’
Dossier, Brooklyn, New York, September feature, series ‘Going home/dust/ashes’
VOGUE Italia, ‘PhotoVogue’, Milan, Italy – June 3rd and June 10th ,
The WILD Magazine, New York, New York – editorial feature on series ‘Going home/dust/ashes’ April Issue #3
2010
RearViewMirror Magazine, Rome, Italy – cover feature, series ‘Going home/dust/ashes’, Fall 2010, Issue #4
Fotoritim Magazine, Istanbul, Turkey – October Issue, Interview and editorial feature on series ‘Going home/dust/ashes’
Parsons Photography MFA TWENTY TEN Thesis Catalogue
VISION Magazine, Beijing, China – July Issue, Number 7 ,editorial feature on series ‘Going home/dust/ashes’
Burn Magazine, curated by David Alan Harvey, feature on series “Going home/dust/ashes”
Publications (Authored)
2012
“In Conversation with Uta Barth” BOMB magazine
“In Conversation with Tacita Dean” BOMB MAGAZINE
“Seducing Galileo: Aleksandra Mir at the Whitney Museum” Whitehot Magazine
2011
“Studio Visit with Gabriel Orozco” The Paris Review
“In Conversation with Deana Lawson” WHITEHOT MAGAZINE
“In Conversation with Elinor Carucci” WHITEHOT MAGAZINE, La Lettre de la Photographie, (second publication)
“Interview with Laurel Nakadate” WHITEHOT MAGAZINE
2010
“In Conversation with Charlotte Cotton” Parsons Photography MFA TWENTY TEN Thesis Catalogue
“In Conversation with Cay Sophie Rabinowitz” Parsons Photography MFA TWENTY TEN Thesis Catalogue
“Miroslav Tichy at the ICP and Howard Greenberg Gallery” WHITEHOT MAGAZINE
2009
“In Conversation with Shirin Neshat” WHITEHOT MAGAZINE
“Reflections in the Electric Mirror: New Feminist Video at the Brooklyn Museum” WHITEHOT MAGAZINE
2008
“Philippe Vandenberg at Envoy Gallery on Chrystie Street” WHITEHOT MAGAZINE
“Interview with Alessandra Sanguinetti” WHITEHOT MAGAZINE
Artist Lectures:
2011 SÍM House, Reykjavik, Iceland
