Noémie Goudal
Below The Deep South
Noémie Goudal’s short film, Below the Deep South, is based on the work of palaeoclimatologist James Bendle who, while drilling in Antarctica, discovered coal beneath the ice. Bendle’s theory is that the coal is an indication that Antarctica was once a lush, green forested environment with insects and animals. It only arrived in its present position due to the shifting of tectonic plates. Inspired by Bendle’s findings, Goudal’s short film constructs her fantasy of the origins of this discovery.
The film begins with a view of a tropical rainforest accompanied by the sounds of nature that Goudal recorded in situ. Slowly a fire is kindled, and the forest begins to burn; the sounds of fire crackling and spitting are laid over as an additional soundtrack. At first it appears that the burning foliage is peeling and curling back, but it soon becomes apparent that what burns is actually layer upon layer of photographs. Set up in a perspectival view with the camera at the apex, the photographs provide a deep view of the forest in combustion. The rate of combustion is controlled in a limited way because Goudal coated the backs of the photographs with different fuels. At the end of the film the armature from which the photos were suspended is revealed, confirming the illusionistic nature of the work.
The film is in effect a record of a performance. It is shot in one take and therefore cannot be completely controlled. In this context, the layering of photographs is an analogue version of photoshop, with one photo blending seamlessly into another. The immersive nature of the film and the shocking images of a forest combusting inevitably refers to the forest clearings that endangers the world’s ecosystem, but also to the unending cycle of the transformation of the earth.
Noémie Goudal’s practice exists at the intersection of art, anthropology, ecology and environmentalism. Her work engages with the history of the earth and the impact of humanity on the environment through photography, film, sound, and performance. In making her photographs Goudal travels to remote corners of the world, setting up elaborate constructions to stage her photographs in situ. Her photographs are often composites, flat works that are seen in layers or sequence or where an object assembled out of photographs is suspended in a landscape. From these photographs she also makes films. Goudal is interested in the boundaries between illusion and reality and in the notion of immersive environments. In making her work, the Goudal herself is immersed in a natural environment, then recreates the illusion back in her studio. To that extent, what she creates is perhaps a post-truth landscape.