[Many thanks to Peter Jordens for bringing this item to our attention.] Lydia Figes (Dazed) critiques the work of Cédrine Scheidig, whose exhibition, “de la mer à la terre,” will probably be on view from February 1 to March 26, 2023, on the Maison Européenne de la Photographie (5/7 rue de Fourcy) in Paris, France.
In his seminal ebook Poétique de la Relation (Poetics of Relation), the revered Martinique author, thinker and critic Édouard Glissant argued that poetics – whether or not expressed via artwork or literature – has a political and aesthetic perform. His writings immediately encourage the work of the 28-year-old French Caribbean photographer Cédrine Scheidig, the winner of the Dior Prize for Images 2021. Her upcoming solo presentation, de la mer à la terre (Maison Européenne de la Photographie in Paris), contemplates the complicated identification of the Black diaspora.
Bringing collectively two current our bodies of labor – It’s a Blessing to be the Shade of Earth (2020), and Les mornes, le feu (The dunes, the fireplace) (2022) – her new exhibition proposes a dialogue between two geographical places: the Parisian suburbs and the French abroad territory of Martinique. A mirrored image of her twin identification, Scheidig’s work celebrates the youth tradition of at the moment’s globally scattered Afro-Caribbean communities. However by doing so, she additionally challenges the medium of pictures itself: “My work is about capturing the lighter, extra poetic representations of the Black diaspora, moderately than portraying these communities amongst struggling, which has so usually been the case within the historical past of pictures.”
Born in Bobigny, a banlieue [or suburb] in northeast Paris, Scheidig’s blended heritage was shared by most individuals from her group, a lot of whom additionally had relations who emigrated to France from French abroad territories within the Caribbean throughout the Windrush period. “For us, ‘dwelling’ isn’t strictly Paris, or France, or the Caribbean – the banlieue has its personal identification and tradition, nearly like a 3rd island.” The thought of the third island – or third area – in postcolonial thought refers back to the notion of hybridity, which in layman’s phrases means a transcultural area – geographical, cultural or linguistic – that’s inextricably tied to the histories of colonialism. On this in-between area, there may be additionally resistance in opposition to the prevailing techniques of energy. Scheidig tells Dazed, “My exploration of Caribbean areas is a strategy to discover territories of hybridity – neither French or utterly impartial from French tradition and historical past.”
Increasing upon this concept, the title of Scheidig’s present De La Mer À Terre (Of the Sea and Earth) evokes transatlantic connections between a number of websites and cultures; the interrelation between French abroad territories within the Caribbean equivalent to Martinique and Guadeloupe (the place her father is from), to various European cities equivalent to Paris, and even to Africa – the ancestral root. “I’ve all the time been instructed I’m French, however that doesn’t imply I determine with that tradition in a sensible sense,” she admits – and her work is an exploration of that ambivalence.
Adopting an intuitive strategy, Scheidig prefers to work slowly. She builds up her portfolio as a inventive durational course of that’s inseparable to the that means of her closing photographs. “I prefer to revisit locations and other people over lengthy stretches of time. It permits me to grow to be extra delicate to that surroundings, and that’s when my images grow to be stronger.” She creates and thoroughly selects photographs which are imbued with a fragile but broader gaze, “capturing an total sense of place.” [. . .]
For full article and images of Scheidig’s work, see https://www.dazeddigital.com/art-photography/article/57981/1/cedrine-scheidig-s-portraits-contemplate-home-and-belonging
The exhibition:
de la mer à la terre
Cédrine Scheidig
February 1 – March 26, 2023
Maison Européenne de la Photographie, 5/7 Rue de Fourcy, 75004 Paris
https://www.mep-fr.org/occasion/cedrine-scheidig (in French)