Secret Histories

Artist's Statement by Magali Moreau

I use silver-based photography and digital imaging technologies to produce images for exhibitions and the web. Each of my projects is designed with an individual process and format. I photograph objects or people and work in a studio or on location indiscriminately. This approach has been described as one of my strength.I make images that relate to the life experience of other people. I try to understand the world around me through the act of photography. I am interested in depicting social, political, cultural events using aesthetic visuals. I choose a situation or event and explore it. I draw elements from it and use them construct a narrative. My work has a sensual guise, I use rich textures and seductive colours. It is subtle and quiet and works on different levels, each layer adding its own interpretation.

'When I was young I use to walk my head up'.

The work on show in the temporary exhibition space of the Folk Museum during November 2002 was commissioned by Blast festival. I was asked to produce a site- specific installation that addressed Gloucester Secret Histories, either real or imagined. I was also asked to run a photo workshop with a group of local youth on the above theme to produce a photo-based media installation within sites of the Folk Museum. The concept of the Folk Museum as a place where history is (re)-constructed and the life experience of the youth was to be a inspiration for the piece I was making. I chose to approach the theme of Secret History from a very personal angle. My piece charts a journey on foot across the city of Gloucester and reveals different aspects of the place. I used a DV camera to record sequences of the different locations I found of interest. From the video footage I extracted stills from which I made a montage in Photoshop, a digital imaging software, to produce the long and narrow prints. I used the layering function of the software to create this build up of images. The panoramic format of the images and the use of visual repetition and of layering attempt to recreate the illusion of time and space. In this work I mixed the mundane and the sacred. I juxtaposed images that belong to different realms like the steel plates found in skip by the Docks and the statue from Gloucester cathedral or the plastic wrapping of a building in construction with the glorious red of a cinema curtain. Other images depict the reflection found on the Docks water at dusk or the hustle and bustle of a main area of the shopping centre. I tried to look at the city and its people without prejudice and to give the opportunity to all the different aspects a chance to make history. I also played with the idea that a secret must remain as such and made the piece purposely ambiguous. I played on the idea of what is real and what is imagined as I wanted to challenge people's imagination.

During the first few days of the project I followed the whereabouts of young people during several afternoons around the city centre. This forms the basis of the text that reads as a circular walk around the city, the docks and the industrial estate. I used 2 quotes, one from Goethe 'He who cannot draw on three thousand years is living from hand to mouth' which refers to the work of the Museum and another by Lewis Carrol 'and she tried to fancy the flame of a candle looks like after the candle is blown out' which relates to my experience of running the workshop with the youth group. The title refers to a state of mind induced by the optimism of youth.

The workshop was ran with a group of pregnant teenagers that attend a local training centre to prepare them to their future life as mothers. We chose the theme of identity and the self to create this photo based installation. The girls used disposable cameras to chart over a period of a week their personal real or imagined secret histories.

The Gallery space at the Museum presented a challenge. I designed the 2 bodies of work to make the best use of it. I produced a series of 12 books to be displayed in the glass cabinets. As objects they fit in within the collectable concept of the Museum. The images made during the workshop by the youth were used to make collages and where placed in a display of domestic frames that recreate a domestic environment. As objects they connect to the Museum that charts the history of people and domesticity. The walls were left bare purposely.

Magali Moreau October 2002