Sarah VAN MARCKE

From to

B-Gallery

Photography

In her photographic work, Sarah Van Marcke examines the position of the human body in the urban landscape. Transformed into photographic images and serving as backdrops, the existing urban or architectural site seems to have lost both reality and functionality. The chosen sites are often the result of visionary or sometimes even utopian ideas.
In her work, Sarah confronts her own body to the constructed landscape and questions the way we move in this space. Behind and in front of the camera at the same time, Sarah is the “anti-subject” of the image; her abandoned body is mainly used as an object that adapts to its environment by imitating form, colour, shape or function. The actions are exaggerated in order to show the eldritch and eerie relationship with contemporary form of space. Beneath the surface, the photographs question the utopian motivation of architects and planners. The images show the beauty of the architecture, the character is used to create or subvert the balance of the image. In an often humorous way, they flirt with the shapes of the space. However, there is always a glimpse of melancholy and sadness, in order to give an account on the dark side of reality behind these visionary constructions (like unsettling living conditions, corrosion, decay and disintegration) and putting them in a historical perspective. In her recent work, Sarah also often uses the architecture itself as the main character to its environment. In these works, the platitude of some of the captured architectural sites is uplifted to a heroic status.

© Sarah VAN MARCKE

Exposition