Writings on and by the Body. “And if Everyone Jumps into the River, Do you Jump too?”
Abstract
The portfolio of the French visual artist Laurie Joly presents a part of her work which has been realized between the early 2000s and the present day in the photographic and video media. This part has been chosen to give an overview of her artistic and conceptual approach to the Body and the Identity and, at the same time, of her different uses of the Image, when this one steps in as a record, a trace or is considered as a material, a palpable object… It also shows the evolution in time of her investigations of the physical and sensitive existence of the Body and the construction of the Identity through the questions of the Power, from a point of view of its different forms and its several techniques, and the effects of the Power on the corporeal matter and the consciousness to be, to perceive itself and to perceive others. Laurie Joly’s position is in the observation of the contemporary society, its structure and its dynamism, its political orientations and strategies, to think to the place given (or not) to the body. How is the body included in this society? In which space can it exist, move and develop in a collective and individual way? What are its possibilities of emancipation and independence? Here are some questions which operate as guidelines of her artistic research. Because the main intention of the artist is in the questioning, an open questioning which is given to the spectators in an artistic form to persist through themselves. And this extension can continue in the given direction as it can initiate other new questions. Time is an important component in Laurie Joly’s artistic process. Time to think. Time to experiment. Time to produce. Time to place in space. Some of her artworks have required a long time to be realized, from few weeks or months to six years, in the same way certain projects have two or more forms/versions as if to signify the possibility of a creation time without limits or end and, by extension, of a constant questioning.
Key words
Action. Aesthetic. Art process. Art research. Body. Code. Composition. Co-presence. Corporeal identity. Data. Digital identity. Electronic surveillance. Experimental Arts. Gender. Identity. Installation Art. Norms. Performance. Photography. Politic. Power. Protocol. Social. Sound. Standard. Surveillance. Technology. Video. Visual Arts.
JOLY, L.: Writings on and by the Body. In European Journal of Media, Art and Photography, 2021, Vol. 9, No. 2, pp. 6-37, ISSN 1339-4940.