Hysteria

Edge of Humanity Magazine

2 years ago

Visual Artist and Design Teacher Marie Le Moigne is the Edge of Humanity Magazine contributor of this photo essay. From the project ‘Hysteria’. To see Marie’s body of work, click on any photograph.

“Hysteria” is a photographic and videographic project that translates the concept of hysteria, often associated with witches, in a strange and enigmatic manner.

Bordering on a surreal atmosphere, this series of 13 black and white analog photographs reveals a female character within a dark universe. The body is adorned with an unsettling strangeness, it reveals itself, bares all, and evolves within the material.

The intimate territories display bodily clues, fragments of enigmas, an inner geography. The body reveals itself or fades away in nature, in the foam. Feminine delirium is associated with the concept of hysteria. Dreams and reality intertwine. A secret?

Emotions, passion, desire, charm, and seduction intertwine. The body fades into its environment. It leaves an imprint, marking time and space.

A silent black and white video – to be looped endlessly, without a beginning or an end – devoid of any temporal cues.

An experimental video showcasing the vibration of an uncertain form in a loop. An infernal loop that somehow translates hysteria, obsession, phobia, and hallucinatory psychosis.
Time suspended.

Bio

Teacher and artist, I live and work in Brittany. I have always had a particular attraction to writing and imagery. This dynamic has guided me since my studies in applied arts and later in art school (at ERG, Brussels, specializing in typography, experimental videography, and photography), where I committed to a sensitive writing of images through words and language. My projects are not limited to a single medium. I explore photography, typography, writing, video, and more. Sometimes, these mediums intersect, interact, and blend together. Between documentary and photography, between literature and visual language, I experiment with photographic and filmic imagery to give substance to language. Indeed, I enjoy creating a new language, one that questions its essence. What is the common language between a body and its environment? What trace does it leave behind and in nature? One dives into a universe on the border between dream and reality. My training (a master’s degree in typography and videography at ERG - Brussels) in editorial design complements my work on images. I am accustomed to connecting the page, words, and images, whether in the intimate space of a book or in the public space of the white cube. Writing has always been important to me, and it holds a significant place in my practice.

 The themes I explore resonate with madness, psychoanalysis, femininity, the body, organs, nudity, intimacy, religion, melancholy... Photography is like therapy for me; it is vital. Sometimes, just beneath the surface, the figures are almost always feminine, like self-portraits telling a story where time is suspended. In my images, fragility becomes strength, a form of expression that characterizes my visual research. Silence, timelessness, and purity emerge from them. I seek to immerse myself in a universe on the border between dream and reality, in a dialogue between landscape and body. It is through a search for identity intertwined with the tumult of the world that the images of the written, naked, unadorned body are revealed. I reflect on the poetic connections that unite the feminine being and nature. The visuals endure the assaults of nature, and the body, in turn, suffers the scratches of time and its writing. I use raw, organic, and corporeal material as a form of writing. 

Indeed, I am inspired by literature, like the works of Marguerite Duras. I write and construct my photographic series as visual poems. The question of language particularly interests me, as well as the language of the body and the space it inhabits, its environment. How does the body inhabit space? What trace does it leave behind in nature? What imprints?

All images and text © Marie Le Moigne