French philosopher Michel Foucault (1926-1984) introduced 鈥渉eterotopias鈥 in his essay Des Espaces Autres. He defined them as places, like gardens or museums, where time and space conflate. In a cultivated garden, for example, species from across the world appear to live in unison. But most arrangements are, in truth, far from natural, unable to coexist without human intervention. It鈥檚 this idea 鈥 of nature versus culture, familiar versus alien 鈥 that intrigues French-American photographer Karine Laval (b.1971). She travels to private and public gardens across Europe and the USA to produce hallucinatory, fragmented images of flowers, leaves and grass. The results are disorientating and drenched in greens and pinks. Laval keeps experimentation alive in an era of digital manipulation. 鈥淭he distortions, superimpositions and otherworldly colours are created in-camera as single shots with the help of reflective surfaces, different light sources and skewed perspectives.鈥
Image credits:
1. Karine Laval, Quarantine #3 (2020). Image courtesy the artist.
2. Karine Laval, Heterotopia #41 (2014). Image courtesy the artist.
3. Karine Laval, Heterotopia #9 (2014). Image courtesy the artist.
4. Karine Laval, Heterotopia #74 (2017). Image courtesy the artist.
5. Karine Laval, Heterotopia #64B (2017). Image courtesy the artist.
6. Karine Laval, Heterotopia #10 (2014). Image courtesy the artist.
7. Karine Laval, Heterotopia #15 (2014). Image courtesy the artist.
8. Karine Laval, Heterotopia #77 (2017). Image courtesy the artist.
9. Karine Laval, Heterotopia #95 (2019). Image courtesy the artist.
10. Karine Laval, Heterotopia #70 (2017). Image courtesy the artist.
11. Karine Laval, Heterotopia #70B (2017). Image courtesy the artist.
