Amber Lalieu

Inspired by a certain dream-like state that I experience during walks in urban space, I try to explore the boundaries between fiction and reality within my work. By re-photographing and then appropriating found imagery I aim to create a distance between the subject and the object. As it feels like the found images have been emptied from their original purpose (by life) and are now existing as a ghost-like residue of themselves.

Friends

Currently I’m working with found images which have some kind of hollowness within their own context. It feels like the images have been emptied from their original purpose (by life) and are now existing as a ghost-like residue of themselves. My screen-print painting series ‘Friends’, which is based on pictures of dog-portrait-stickers placed on trash bins, is an example of this. As the images were fading away, it felt like there was only a trace left of what once was a portrayed dog.

This haunting of an image or reference and the emptiness within reaches my fantasy, imagination as well as my perception on everyday life.

By re-photographing and then appropriating found imagery I aim to create a distance between the subject and the object. I think my work is therefore related to the concept of Hauntology.

In my (painting) practice I’m currently interested in combining graphic design techniques like screen printing with painting as I feel like within this process I can experiment with distancing found imagery further from its source, which mirrors my perception of the original found material.

I find it interesting to appropriate this found material, collect it in a way, and create a new hangout for it. And in this way ground it in the contemporary.