- Video Désirella with Marie Piemontese & Vincent Thomasset PAL, 3 CCD, format 4:3, on DVD, auto-start. Edition of 10.
- Tirages photographiques abstraits Particules, C-Print, 52,5x50 cm. Edition of 7.
- Abstract Photographs Lanscapes, C-print, 92x126 cm. Edition of 5.
- Abstract Photographs Lanscapes, C-print, 60x80 cm. Edition of 7.
The series was developed as a response to a worrying repetition of press articles about proliferation of microscopic forms. The theme of the invisible danger and the cycle of life explains the choice of a garden set between the city and the woods as one of the main locations. The viewer discovers marvelous and sensual particles appear and evolve in photographs or in digital special effects and has to make sense of out them. Are they allusion to a sparkling love affair between two characters, or a realistic clue of some hidden danger in the air? Imagination takes control.
The gardened landscape between Paris and Versailles is a perfect backdrop to meditate about the fragile balance between nature, imagination and urban modernity.
The particles originate in the actual analog cristals of the slides. The bright white effect of the background is due to a smart use of the - in these days - brand new technology of lambda printing. The series finds itself located at a moment where the actual microscopic material of the image is evolving towards the digital data proliferation. This time conceptually, the theme is materialized one more time. Sparkles...the visual delight of reworking the gemlike particles, layers after layers like they would be bright pigments of light.
About Desirella, Christine Macel writes :
« Exulting with beauty
A woodsy trail, a woman’s body, sculpted as she is throwing herself, a couple embracing. (…) Here and there multicolored circles emerge, abstract and sudden appearances all over, teasing each other among the branches, running through the sculptures surface. Others pursue their course on immaculate white backgrounds, shining with exhilaration. These strange spheres seem to be traveling from some virtual world, like pixels from an imaginary film roll. Rightly so, indeed. Ralph Samuel Grossmann makes an inventive use of digital photography to create abstracts works far from the expected image the scenario could suggest. The aesthetical exultation one feels for the work increases the desire to possess it. A sexually charged approach to photography develops. Endlessly these images play with our senses, letting us in, but never allowing us any control...»
((from press release Galerie Maisonneuve, Liste 06 Art Fair, Basel (Switzerland) 2006).)
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The series was shown at:
- Nuit Blanche de la ville de Paris, au Musée Cognacq-Jay (sous le titre Parcours / Présence – 2009) : Projection vidéo sur grand écran, en programme avec la performance chorégraphique, Plugs, de Vincent Thomasset.
- Parcours Parisien de la Photographie 2008, Galerie Xavier Nicolas (Paris).
- Liste 06 – Art Fair Basel,Suisse (2006) : Installation avec moniteur TV, Photographies grand format abstraites et paysages (série complète).
- Galerie Maisonneuve – Paris (2005) : Installation avec moniteur TV, Photographies grand format abstraites et huit photographies paysages.