Graduated from University of Brighton
Selected by Katayoun Pasban Dowlatshahi
The Catchers, 2006 - 2008
Artist statement
My current practice stems from an abiding interest in psychological and philosophical disciplines. Committed to exposures of the psyche, the camera is deployed as a tool by which the unconscious may be unlocked thus enabling significant emotional and mental shifts. The private nature of the photographic studio enables certain revelatory actions, unlocking previously concealed truth.
A crucial element of ritual in my work seeks to facilitate transformative procedures, gaining inspiration from Richard Schechner’s theories on symbolic time and processes inherent within situations of conflict. The re-construction of ‘episodes’, be they of the solitary or paired figure, relies on the metaphorical nature of physical posturing. This secretive environment also introduces the appropriation of a variety of pertinent objects. Deliberately destabilised, they act as conduits for the expression of anxiety, anger and repression.
Taking the form of the contemporary confessional box, attempts are made to confront particular perplexities held within firm ideological belief systems. I seek to challenge practices of control alongside engagement in a process of fresh enquiry. 'The Catchers' acts as both an exercise in mourning and the re-negotiation of a rite of passage.
Selector text
It is a measure of success that in a technological age, in which the over proliferation of the photographic image assaults our senses day in and day out, that a series of images can cease the visual noise and force one to contemplate and question that which has been presented. Louise Fago-Ruskin is one such artist and her photographs are stark musings presented as a series of 'confessional' images. You are not presented with intimate identities but culturally imposed ones, conveyed through her subjects. These are carefully constructed images. The artist employs visual metaphors to allude to personal histories and social conformities and control. These are visually ambiguous images but beautifully crafted and simply presented for what they are.
(Katayoun Pasban Dowlatshahi, 2008)
