WEAVE: Double Exposures
By Leah Sinclair
“Since I understood the power of the body to provoke emotions and sensations in the audience during a live performance, I wanted to mimic that precious exchange through my images.”
Manuel Vason’s new body of work, ‘Double Exposures’ explores the collaboration between two groups of artists, and the distinct themes of performance and photography as they weave into one. Vason’s progression and interest in double images developed from a growth beyond single images. “In my previous projects, my aim was to produce a single iconic image. I guess this is due to my training as a fashion photographer. But after many years of exploration and exchange with performance artists I thought the best way to express my willingness for a real experimentation was to sabotage my own practice; by splitting the ‘iconic’ image and by handing my camera to my collaborator. “
This fresh perspective is evident throughout his work, as he weaves between two sets of artists; one with whom he had worked with before, and the other he hadn’t. “This project gave me the opportunity to meet and exchange with 20 new performance artists and to engage them into the development of a new performance, while also working with those who I had already established a relationship of mutual trust.” With the theme presenting ‘performance as photography, and photography as performance,’ Vason perfectly meshes these two worlds to create pages of visually stimulating images as these creative entities collide.