Carol-Ann Willering

Traces urbaines

URBAN TRACKS Human beings have always left their mark in their wake. From the caves of prehistoric times to the catacombs of Rome, from medieval jails to forests, from beaches to cities, everywhere we discover, often hidden in hidden corners out of sight, symbols, graffiti, signatures, scraps of signs testifying to the desire of a being to leave its mark on the surface of things. In the urban environment, as soon as a surface is created or freed, as soon as a space is abandoned, anonymous hands seize it, covering them with all kinds of materials, posters, stickers, flyers, paint, adhesives , tags, slogans, fingerprints in the dust ... Others come to destroy what has been done to trace their marks in turn. From this stacking of layers and tears, extraordinary abstract compositions are born, ephemeral anonymous works of art which carry within them all kinds of stories, sometimes incongruous, sensitive, baroque, others more committed, more political, using urban space as a platform. In this photographic work, I wanted to fix and reveal this ephemeral, these peremptory human manifestations, these poetic or dramatic imprints ... By the choice of the framing, by what these forms told me, suggested to me visually, I wanted to testify to these involuntary works created around a wall, a fence, a construction site, the whitewashed window of a closed store, adding my photographer\'s gaze and thus becoming the last actor in this human chain of expression and creation.

Photographer

Carol-Ann Willering

Based in Paris, France, Carol-Ann Willering has worked for many years as a video editor and video maker, as well as a screen writer and play writer. She collaborated, among others, with Bob Wilson for «Mr Bojangle’s memories» at the Centre Georges Pompidou. Since 2014, she has started a new career as visual artist and photographer. She mixes photography and digital techniques in her visual researches. Her experience in storytelling finds naturally a new way of expression through still images. The art she proposes takes its source in a photographic snapshot that, captured in reality, carries in it the signs of a history. The whole project consists of working on the very imagination of the image in the sense that the image, taken in reality, can be revealing of unconscious imaginations. She also practices street photography, and during the coronavirus lockdown time, started to document life in her neighborhood.

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