Karine Laval: Reflections

About

Reflections will bring together two connected bodies of work focused on the motif of the swimming pool - The Pool (2002-2005) and Poolscapes (2009-2012). Presenting pools in urban and natural environments throughout Europe and private estates in the US, this work evolves from the real to the imagined, from the photographic to the painterly. The Pool invites the viewer into bleached-out public pools, evoking childhood memories and the universal experience of sun-drenched holidays. Strong, geometric lines give way to abstract, blurred shapes and vivid colours of Poolscapes, where the image oscillates between representation and abstraction; the pool becomes a mirror whose surface reflects the surrounding world and lures the viewer into a submerged realm, where bodies of bathers are fragmented and distorted, echoing the pool's darker connotations. Alongside these works Reflections will also present Laval's most recent series, Heterotopia, in which Laval continues her exploration of distorted realities and altered perceptions, resulting in seductive manipulations of light and colour. Densely layered photographs of gardens and natural environments are accentuated by extreme crops and skewed perspectives, resulting in images that could be extra-terrestrial landscapes as they challenge our perceptions of the natural environment; a bridge between the world we think we know and a dreamlike dimension.