TOWARDS A PHOTOGRAPHIC ARCHIVE OF OBJECTS: FROM 'HISTOIRES...' TO MUSEO-GRAPHIES

I return to the same warehouse, where I photograph a series of MASKS: tribal, an XVIIth century carved face of a saint (Indo-Portughese) from Goa, and a Hindu temple mask, painted red...
In the evening, at the studio, I combine them in groups of two, three, four and five.
What comes out of this, is that the works in the new series may take the form of the DYPTYCH, TRYPTYCH or POLYPTYCH...
The sessions culminates in a composition in which four masks from three different cultures—tribal, Christian and Hindu—are combined in a way suggestive of museum display.
I decide to call the new series 'Museo-graphies'.
Here, unlike in the first 'Histoires...' series, the objects are no longer set like actors on a stage, but as objects presented in an individual showcase; except that here the juxtapposition is more openly narrative than is the case in museums. Rather than being presented as artefacts from different culture groups, the objects are given a voice and become silent 'talking heads'. Whereas the two tribal masks and the Christan head sustain our gaze, the red Hindu mask directs his gaze at the other faces. The resut is a multi-directional network of gazes, which implicates viewers in this circularity.



(Click on image to enlarge)

It looks as if this may be the outcome of this residency, but I am not quite sure...
Could this be a model for alternative museum display?