LAURENCE PAYOT - LIVERPOOL.UK

31 JANUARY 2010

Written by TRAVIS LEE STREET

EYRE STREET IN EYRE STREET [2009]               

    Take a look, then take a second, then a third. Then just stare. Payot's work deals with the interplay between the physicality of art in reality, and the art of reality. A French interdisciplinary artist, Payot mixes photography, installation, design, and performance to create a world within a world (ad infinitum) that draws an unsuspecting audience in and provides a unique look at the world, as though we were all children seeing through a mirror reflecting a mirror in a changing room for the first time.
 

HUMAN BILLBOARD HAVING A BREAK [2009]               

But although it may be the images that intrigue us, it is the simplicity behind the ideas of the images that captures our attention. Her work is very succinct and offers what appears to be a verbose portfolio of work that has direction and conceptual development that flows along a linear path. Take for example her most recent installation/performance I Thought It Was Real.   
 

I Thought It Was Real [2010]               

Quite obviously playing on the 'performers' in the street who work with perception of a human portraying a statue, Payot created a statue portraying a human playing a statue. Simple concept right? But it drew a static crowd in a high-traffic public space that would have taken a fire-breathing snake-lady to have gotten any other way.

I Thought It Was Real [2010]               

Talking to Payot about this piece, she told me how the crowd just stood there, daring the 'statue' to move. The piece sparked the people's (dis)belief in their own reality. No human performer could have performed so well. Impossible. The crowd stood around until (usually) a young audience member mustered up the gusto and went to touch. Wild exhalations from the crowd ensued, most choosing the route of laughter, but some leaving angry and disappointed grumbling about what can only be construed as their own gullibility.

I'm sure the next time they see a person / object pretending to be something else, they will very vividly recall Payot's work and think twice.

http://www.laurencepayot.com/