Gaelle S. Warner

Collage of original photos, printed on Plexiglas (60 x 60 cm). Around a black grid, a repetitive sequence of photos depicting a mannequin's face behind a shop window in Paris, nativity figurine’s heads in a store on Via San Gregorio Armeno in Naples, the branches of a tree in winter on Place des Vosges, a building under construction in Hong Kong and Saint-Paul church in the Marais district of Paris reflected in a puddle of water.

Collage of original photos, printed on Plexiglas (60 x 60 cm). Around a white grid, a repetitive, contrasting sequence (gray, blue and orange) of photos depicting a beach in Santa Monica, the facade of a building in which another building is reflected in Tokyo, cranes in the London sky, a view of the estuary and town of Bosa in Sardinia, two blurred silhouettes running on a pontoon and a man looking over his shoulder from the top of the spiral staircase at the Guggenheim Museum in New York.

Collage of original photos, printed on Plexiglas (60 x 60 cm). Around a white grid, a repetitive sequence of photos depicting a building in Marseille, the roof of a gas station in the village of Roujan, a light bulb hanging against a sheet metal background, a pump and hose in a farm barn, and a piece of distressed yellow metal from a dumpster in a construction site.

Collage of original photos, printed on Plexiglas (60 x 60 cm). Around a black grid, a repetitive sequence of photos taken in Seoul, depicting an orange building in the Jongno district, an advertising poster on a street in Seongsu-dong, the "Brooklyn" of Seoul, the facade of KEB Hana Bank by architect Kim Chan-joong, the word "Fiction" on a storefront, and the reflection of a bare tree in a window.

Collage of original photos, printed on Plexiglas (60 x 60 cm). Around a black grid, a repetitive sequence of photos depicting the facade of a building painted orange in Berlin, a luminous star in Milan on Christmas Eve, street vendors in Hong Kong, a Madonna taken in Sicily and the deserted parking lot of a small abandoned shopping mall in the suburbs of Los Angeles.

Collage of original photos, printed on Plexiglas (60 x 60 cm). Around a white grid, a repetitive sequence of photos depicting people on holiday on a beach in Hendaye, the branch of a tree in bloom against a red wall in Berlin, the door of the Musée Cantonal des Beaux-Arts in Lausanne, the reflection of a tree in a stream near Lake Geneva and rowers in Venice, Los Angeles, with their trainer.

Saint-Gobain building in La Défense in Paris

A house's imprint on a wall after demolition

A blue building facade in Brooklyn with a yellow traffic light

Reflexion of a building in a shop window

A building going under renovation in Madrid

A building in Seoul with a billboard showing the face of a woman

Buildings by architect Gérard Grandval in Créteil, just outside of Paris

A yellow car speeding on the freeway in Bagnolet

The reflexion of a building in a puddle on Place des Vosges in Paris

Tourists taking photos in the Palais Royal in Paris

Facade of the KEB Hana bank by architect Kim Chan-joong

An orange building overlooking a traditional housing labyrinth

Gaelle S. Warner

As a self-taught photographer, I wander around trying to understand the intimate and complex relationship we have with the urban places that inhabit us. I cut into this reality to extract puzzle pieces, images that repeat and respond to each other. In this way, my collages recompose a syncopated vision of these spaces in which we are all trying to find a place to exist.

The architectures I capture tell the story of the complex choices that went into creating the spaces we share. Cities are made up of strata where ancient and recent history, imbued with the codes and symbols of financial and political power, coexist in a sometimes conflicting dialogue. In some places, one crushes the other, which resists oblivion as best it can.

In my collages, Hong Kong, Los Angeles, Naples and Paris are fragmented and scattered, reinventing imaginary cities that reveal themselves as we approach the artworks. By focusing on details, I want to set the scene in which we stage our individual lives. It’s not about catching mouvements, but reflecting on that precise moment that triggers the expectation, the absence and the silence that precede all actions.

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