Rachel Moreau

I am primarily concerned in the exploration of various neuroses such as anxiety, loss of control, the need to escape, fear of failure, choices and their effect, and the development of identity. These explorations are both personal and universal.

There is a constant negotiation made visible through the creation of familiar fantasy narratives and characters. Some of the backdrops include detective noir, extraterrestrial investigation, fractured fairytales, 1950's domestic fantasy, and childhood play that mimics adulthood. These scenes are mysterious, foreboding, contain dark humor, high melodrama, and toy with reality.

Although I employ a variety of media my underlying motivations and structure of working is the same. I take seemingly disparate, innocuous props or images and combine them to create new and unusual associations. The framework that I work with begins by establishing a fantasy or environment, using the perceived reality of photography/photo based media and juxtaposing or staging them in such a way to explore intuitive contradictory ideas.

My work is primarily serial in nature, much like a filmstrip, in which each piece reveals a bit more about the whole and shifts the overall story. Dream sequences or splintered scenes from a play are referenced by employing a dramatic use of shadow, the repetition of form, alteration of scale, and abstract/detailed views. I’m much more interested in revealing clues and grappling with contradictions. It is important for me to maintain an open-endedness and sense of mystery in my work so that the viewer has room to project their own stories and interpretations.