Brad Feuerhelm (US)
A Sense of Private Theatre
Exhibition Review The Umbilical Vein - De Brakke Grond
2014
ENG
The photographic works or self-described “analogue archive” of mother/daughter team of Marlène Coolens and Lisa de Boeck (Memymom) create a challenging counterpoint to the ongoing discussions about what the archive is and what it can be, and also what the synthesis of collaborative venture sometimes means.
The works, which mostly focus on daughter Lisa with mother Marilène the photographer, span from 1990-2003. The works themselves promote a sense of private theatre where the cinematic interpretations of a adolescent girl and her mother’s interest in capturing her growth intertwine into a nearly fairytale episode of motherhood, fantasy, and juvenilia recorded by film…a format of which was in decline through much of this project.
Since 2003, the body of work has been continued by the mother & daughter team, but the work has now become based on the impulses of daughter Lisa who now as a woman herself, continues the reflexive use of the camera through self-portraiture. She also photographs her mother now, which is a table-turning method , which gives further credence to the project as collaboration. What is special in the early works through present is the notion of trans-generational use of the camera as a tool for a continuity where the subject and the images “recorded” question the play of what Lisa is to Marilène and what Marilène is to the archive itself at present? Is it a living archive and what does this output consist of by manner of switching the subject? It is at its base sweet and without the usual problems of exploitation in so many “family” works. This archive ennobles the familial bond rather than regressing to a system of an unaware subject use and further problems of patterned abuse and the representation of children. It is a palpitating and living record of transition, change, and bond.