Agathe, attendant le soleil, Drôme, 2020
Inkjet print
Edition 1 of 5
30 x 26 cm
Lea Lerma’s Agathe, attendant le soleil depicts a friend after spontaneously staying up all night to witness dawn. The image, taken in a semi-conscious delirious stat as the rising light and heat lift the mist. The figure, marked by a red head reminiscent of mythic characters like Melisandre (Game of Thrones) sits on a bench next to the fire awaiting the sun, entranced by an invisible entity on the pillow opposite her. The subject's form is cast in a stark shadow, adding to the spectral atmosphere.
Hermetic rite of illumination: The interplay of light, shadows, the subject's red hair and pose, and the V-shaped mountains evoke divine revelation, spiritual emancipation, and mythical narratives. The fire, concealed sun, and heat align with Coptic-Egyptian and Greek magical texts, associating fire and light with divine power. Mikuriya (2017) notes, "The brightness associated with the divine belongs to the sun's domain."1 Lingering shadows and the subject's demeanour suggest a ritualistic process, whereby the figure appears to be awaiting the outcome, facing an invisible entity.
Micro-utopian experiment of a liminal communitas: Lea Lerma's work depicts two friends participating in a micro-utopian experiment initiated during the second COVID-19 lockdown. This experiment explored alternative social and physical constructs within a derelict urban structure and later extended into the wilderness. The group, reminiscent of Turner's "communitas," exists within a "liminal space" (Turner, 1995)2 characterised by suspended societal norms and temporal ambiguity. The group's gestures, movements, interactions, and clothing contribute to this ambiguity. While the group's experiment initially represented idealism, Lerma's work contrasts this by portraying the harsh realities of life in these environments, which are physically more dangerous and bear the mental pressures of urban life.
A subversive psychological fairytale quest: Lerma's protagonists, akin to Red Riding Hood and Snow White, are young adults transitioning into adulthood, venturing into uncharted territories (Lüthi, 1976)3 and undergoing self-definition (Flores, 1996).4 Fantastical elements within Lerma's work facilitate suspension of disbelief while grounding scenes in tangible reality (Vasudeven, 2017).5
Free, fearless, uncontrolled and unsafe: Lerma's communitas, unlike alternative subcultural "safe spaces," prioritises openness and risk over safety. This "unsafe" space facilitates greater freedom, potentially including the risk of mortality. Activities such as hanging around cliff edges like here in the wilderness, with no access to emergency services or basic necessities, exemplify this extreme openness.
Notes:
1 Mikuriya, Junko Theresa. A History of Light: The Idea of Photography. Bloomsbury, 2017.
2 Turner, Victor. The Ritual Process. 1995.
3 Lüthi, Max. Once Upon a Time: On the Nature of Fairy Tales. F. Ungar Pub. Co,1976.
4 Flores, Nona C. Animals in the Middle Ages: The Book of Essays. 1996.
5 Vasudeven, Alexander. “Reassembling the City: Makeshift Urbanisms and the Politics of Squatting in Berlin.” The Autonomous City: A History of Urban Squatting. Verso, 2017.
Exhibition provenance:
London, Copeland Gallery, After the Waiting Room, 2022.
Frame: Unframed
Ships from the United Kingdom
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Close Considerations
Neurological correlates of dream-like states: The visual distortion of the scene evokes a state of blurred perception, akin to the gradual awakening from sleep and the subsequent disorientation regarding one's surroundings and the veracity of one's memories. The unoccupied bench amplifies the sense of mystery, suggesting a potential interaction with an invisible entity, lost within one's own world, entangled in a paranormal moment. The vacant pillow invites the viewer to mentally fill it, speculating on the subject's physical and metaphysical engagement.
Medieval figure in esoteric initiation: The garment worn by the subject, resembling a medieval dress, drapes over the bench like a cape, obscured by shadows. This positions the subject in a timeless state, belonging to a mythical era, further enhanced by their red hair, reminiscent of a mythical character possessing magical powers associated with fire and light. This timeless quality haunts the image. The red hair and fiery light connect the subject and the fire, suggesting the aftermath of a fire ritual, with the concealed sun symbolising its culmination.
Vertiginous axes and spiral: The subject's vertical stance, fire, and mountain disrupt the diagonal axes, destabilising the composition and creating a sense of inevitability. Despite the mountain's mass, it appears elevated, enhancing its overwhelming force. Its spiral-like configuration converges into the subject, suggesting a vertiginous state of disorientation as a holistic condition rather than a particular instant.
Paradoxical progress of time through light and space: The significance of the image unfolds along two axes, transitioning from the undifferentiated, blurred backdrop of the past to the stark clarity of the present, while simultaneously moving from the darkness of the past to the intensified light and colour saturation of the present (Nochlin, 1985, p.32).1 This paradoxical progression disrupts the viewer's positional understanding, creating uncertainty regarding their temporal relationship to the depicted scene.
Implied audience within relational space: Lerma's compositional strategies transform her images into relational spaces that involve the viewer. The depicted subject/s, whose identities remain obscured, acknowledge Lerma's presence through a partial body orientation. This angled positioning, combined with the vacant area for Lerma's perspective, emphasises the empty space filled by the viewer and their psychological impulses.
Notes:
1 Nochlin, Linda. Realism. Penguin Books, 1985.
Process
Reduced agency in delirious state of mind: Lerma and her collective intentionally disrupted their sleep patterns to witness dawn's first light. Lerma, in a delirious state, explored how her mind coordinates photographic elements, orchestrating light, shadows, figures, and spatial configuration. The duality between her dreamy vision and the camera's sharp functioning is an enhanced human-machine collaboration, as the artist's agency was reduced.
Pre-emptive intuitional composing: Lerma's process involves anticipating and capturing spontaneous configurations among her friends in various spaces, employing intuitive pre-emption to preserve the moment's energy and mystique. She utilises specific camera settings, such as a wide aperture and slow shutter speed, to capture details in dimly lit spaces, contributing to the mood and emotional depth. She strategically positions herself or awaits the ideal light or for her subjects to assume particular poses or interactions, balancing spontaneity with a clear intention regarding the desired capture, resulting in organic yet meticulously crafted compositions.
Unprivileged view: Lerma's compositions align with Tillmans' notion of the "unprivileged view" (Godfrey, 2017),1where the artist's presence minimally influences the scene. Subjects often remain oblivious to Lerma, creating an atmosphere that "provokes a feeling of not mattering rather than command" (Ibid.),2 enabling the viewer to engage with the scene without undue artist interference.
Embedded ethnography: Lerma assumes the role of a "documentary observer," employing a systematic process of observation to allow the landscape to reveal itself without imposition, as articulated by hooks (1997).3 From within the communitas, Lerma offers a literal perspective aligned with Turner's concept of “heroic time,” rendering her an effective anthropologist of her own culture (Turner, 1985).4 Her ethos mirrors the communitas' values, defined by a spontaneous and immediate approach to relationships. Subjects within the communitas retain the autonomy to approve or withdraw consent for the use of their photographs.
Process as political action: Rancière's (1999)5 framework on the “aesthetics of politics” posits that art transforms into political activity by disrupting the established symbolic order through the exposure of previously invisible elements. Lerma's practice, while intertwined with her political life, differs from photojournalism, which presents events as mere records or spectacles. Conversely, Lerma captures "the image of the photographic rhetoric that is purported to capture the event" (Guerra, 2006), offering a comprehensive understanding of the group's actions and underlying processes.
Discontinuities, asymmetries, and open frames: Lerma's breaks the focus by using discontinuities, asymmetries, and open frames enriching this scene by disrupting its visual harmony and preventing rigidity. John Slyce (2000) notes, "The frame sets limits while offering a tangible means of escape."6 Lerma achieves this through cropped sections, leading lines extending beyond the frame, figures interacting with off-frame elements, and awkward props.
Disconnected instants and implicit intertextuality: Lerma's works, presented in artist books with variable image sequences, allow each work to be viewed within diverse contexts. This lack of a fixed sequence creates a dynamic constellation of "disconnected instants" (Berger & Bohr, 1982),7 where juxtaposition generates echoes, contrasts, and recurrences, forming "implicit intertextuality" (Ricœur, 1984).8 While the book format provides a meta-continuation, Lerma's practice of altering the sequence ensures each picture's autonomy, boosting its individual sovereignty.
Iterative composing and tautological reinforcement: Lerma's iterative compositional process generates multiple variants to elucidate the core structure and select the most impactful representation. This tautological approach reinforces the compositional elements' conjunction and interrelationships, as Allison Smith (1998)9 asserts. Despite facial anonymity, Lerma offers hints about her subjects' identities through body language and poses across different tautological contexts, facilitating viewer interpretation of actions and interactions, and engendering a viewer-subject relationship.
Notes:
1 Godfrey, Mark. Worldview. In Wolfgang Tillmans 2017, edited by Chris Dercon, Helen Sainsbury, and Wolfgang Tillmans, Tate, 2017, pp.14-76.
2 Ibid.
3 hooks, bell. “Between Us: Traces of Love—Dickinson, Horn, Hooks.” In Earths Grow Thick, Wexner Center for the Arts, 1997.
4 Turner, Victor. On the Edge of the Bush. 1985.
5 Rancière, Jacques. Disagreement: Politics and Philosophy. University of Minnesota Press, 1999.
6 Guerra, Carles. Notre Histoire, Catalogue of the Exhibition. Paris: Palais de Tokyo, 2006.
7 Slyce, John. On Time, Performative Realism: The Photographs of Sarah Jones, Museum Folkwang, 2000.
8 Ricœur, Paul. Time and Narrative. Translated by Kathleen McLaughlin and David Pellauer, University of Chicago Press, 1984.
9 Smith, Allison. Agnes Varda. Manchester University Press, 1998.
References
Hitchcockian Vertigo: Lerma has cited Hitchcock's cinematic portrayal of vertigo as a strong inspiration. While the spiral in other works makes this more explicit, the dizzying disorientation can result from looking down from the edge, the sense of disorientation and potential loss of control in the face of nature's power, reflecting the psychological disorientation (Hurley, 1993).1 The individuals depicted seem to be in a state of perpetual vertigo that renders them indifferent to the physical elements.
Vinca Petersen: Lea Lerma's reference to Vinca Petersen, the artist and former nomadic squat dweller, highlights their shared experiences. While Petersen's group embraced rave and party culture, Lerma's resonance aligns more closely with Petersen's depictions of interpersonal connection and natural landscapes, capturing moments of ecopsychological euphoria.
Goya’s progression of time through light and space: Goya's Third of May unfolds temporally and spatially within the pictorial field. The narrative progresses from an undifferentiated background, describing the 'before,' to a climactic, light-revealed execution scene, representing the 'now,' and concludes with fallen figures at the pictorial boundary, signifying the 'afterwards.' This temporal progression is boosted by light intensity, colour saturation, and materiality, as noted by Nochlin (1985).2
Surrealism: Similar to the problematic light effects in the works of Delvaux, De Chirico, Ernst, Dali, Tanguy, and Miró, Lerma's work features an unknowable light source that bathes the figures in unnatural scenes that appear staged or digitally manipulated. The forest setting, devoid of any discernible light source, is illuminated by both hard and soft light, casting ominously thick black shadows from architectural elements. This juxtaposition of light and darkness creates a menacing atmosphere.
Andrei Tarkovsky's Landscapes: Tarkovsky's portrayal of humanity in a state of loss within natural landscapes is recalled in Lerma's work, which, through her community's actions, evokes a similar sense of being enveloped by expansive and immersive scenes. Lerma's compositional structures echo Tarkovsky's landscape aesthetics. (Image: Tarkovsky’s still from Stalker)
Caspar David Friedrich’s romanticism: Friedrich Schleiermacher, a contemporary of Caspar Friedrich (whom Lerma cites as an influence), redefined religion as an internal, instinctual experience, departing from doctrinal interpretations (Butin, 2014).3 While Friedrich's and Lerma's works depict nature, this particular picture of Lerma’s subverts the traditional hope of transcendental possibilities. Instead, it presents a state of oblivion, akin to imminent psychological death and complete disillusionment, yet replete with potential dopamine and serotonin effects. (Image: Caspar David Friedrich’s Woman in Front of the Setting Sun)
Clement Cogitore's Work: Cogitore, another reference point of Lerma’s, explores themes of irrationality, archaic schemas, primitivism, sacred survival, magic's infiltration into a world losing faith in transcendence, and apocalyptic figures. Ancient forms are recontextualised through contemporary image perception, where technology and the internet have replaced magic, yet the unconscious remains in pursuit of belief (Vergne, 2018).4
Fairytales: Lerma's visual narrative draws from historic fairytales, featuring ordinary protagonists immersed in fantastical realms (Swann Jones, 2013).5 Like Red Riding Hood and Snow White, Lerma's protagonists are young adults transitioning into adulthood, venturing into uncharted territories (Lüthi, 1976)6 and defining themselves (Flores, 1996).7Fantastical elements in Lerma's work facilitate suspension of disbelief (Vasudeven, 2017).8 The depicted moments remain authentic, subtly altered by Lerma's presence, perspective, and technique, creating a captivating dissonance in the fantastical scenes grounded in reality.
Sarah Jones and Dutch-Flemish Painting: Lerma's works, including this one, often exhibit structural configurations similar to Jones's pictures and Dutch-Flemish painting. Figures appear deeply engrossed, while settings pulsate with subtle significance (Higgie, 2000).9 A system of micro-signs forms a psychological narrative, with hints found in hand and foot positioning (Troncy, 2000).10 Lerma's brilliance lies in the silent interplay of places, objects, and people, which convey the intensity of a Greek drama (Higgie, 2000).11
Rembrandt, Caravaggio and Vermeer: Lerma's work resonates more with Rembrandt than Caravaggio or Vermeer, all of whom she mentions in discussing her practice. Her figures though caught in chiaroscuro-like moments and in quiet poses of Vermeer, exhibit Rembrandt’s quality of calm yet bold receptivity and a sense of awe towards the potential for transcendence within the ordinary. The evanescent light on the figures, sometimes subtle and other times radiant, imbues them with a mystical connection.
Nan Goldin: Lerma's work is influenced by Nan Goldin's exploration of intimate relationships, capturing moments of isolation, self-revelation, and adoration (Sussman, 1996).12 However, Lerma's approach differs from Goldin's photojournalistic snapshots, as Lerma's work is meticulously composed through pre-emption and tautology, resulting in a unique, rigorous, and more metaphysical visual language. (Image: Nan Goldin, Nan and Brian in bed, New York City, 1983; Copr. Nan Goldin)
Notes:
1 Hurley, Neil P. Soul in Suspense: Hitchcock’s Fright and Delight. Scarecrow Press, 1993.
2 Nochlin, Linda. Realism. Penguin Books, 1985.
3 Butin, Hubertus. Gerhard Richter’s Editions and The Discourses of Images. In Gerhard Richter Editions 1965–2013, edited by Hubertus Butin, Stefan Gronert, and Thomas Olbricht. Hanje Cantz, 2014.
4 Vergne, Jean-Charles, and Clement Cogitore. Le Prix Marcel Duchamp. SilvaneEditoriale, 2018.
5 Swann Jones, Steven. The Fairy Tale: The Magic Mirror of the Imagination. 1995.
6 Lüthi, Max. Once Upon a Time: On the Nature of Fairy Tales. F. Ungar Pub. Co,1976.
7 Flores, Nona C. Animals in the Middle Ages: The Book of Essays. 1996.
8 Vasudeven, Alexander. “Reassembling the City: Makeshift Urbanisms and the Politics of Squatting in Berlin.” The Autonomous City: A History of Urban Squatting. Verso, 2017.
9 Higgie, Jennifer. Sarah Jones. Le Consortium, 2000.
10 Troncy, Eric. Sarah Jones. Le Consortium, 2000.
11 Ibid (8)
12 Sussman, Elisabeth. Nan Goldin: I’ll be Your Mirror. Whitney Museum of American Art, 1996.