Having worked with projection and video throughout my practice, I have always held an interest in the way these ‘contemporary’ mediums are significantly linked to some of the earliest forms of image making. One particular reference that has influenced my practice is Pliny’s Maid of Corinth. Within this ancient allegory of painting and projection, a young woman, Butades, delineates the projected shadow of her soon-to-be
departed lover’s silhouette on a wall, forming his looming absence into a visual presence.

My current body of work Trust Ledger – Electricity Accounts (June 2011–February 2012) (2015) draws on this sentiment with the discovery of found images from a real estate website of my recently passed mother’s apartment. Incorporating unfixed photographic paper and projected images, the work
plays with subtle interferences with the projectors imaging system through fluctuations of light and shadow.

Elise Harmsen – March 2016