Maria VAUGHAN
Beaux-Arts de Paris
The exhibition is an exploration of identity through a constantly changing environment. As Rebecca Solnit puts it in A Field Guide to Getting Lost, “Getting lost was not a matter of geography so much as identity, a passionate desire, even an urgent need, to become no one and anyone, to shake off the shackles that remind you who you are, who others think you are.”
My art practice has always revolved around the act of wandering, looking at my surroundings and then returning to reflect upon them. Always accompanied by a (video) camera, I use it not only as a tool but also as a shield, allowing me to observe freely while remaining unseen. Over time, I've come to realize that this seemingly aimless act of recording my surroundings is, in fact, a quest to understand my identity through the study of the landscape.
These two photographs, part of a larger series in progress, were shot during family trips or my daily walks in the last few years, where I documented man’s intervention in the landscape, be it industry, residential areas or leisure activities while also capturing my indoor intimacy. These double scenarios infuse each other, the barrier between outside and inside becoming porous, letting my emotions reflect in the territory. A clin d’oeil to old postcards with their wavy edges, I intend to portray a landscape as a self portrait.