THE IMPOSSIBILITY OF LOVE

In the series ‘The Impossibility of Love’ Alessandra Kila & Philip Rusharc embark on a conceptual journey venturing through fantastical terrains searching for the parameters of possibility.
Through the construction of contemporary dreamscapes that combine artificial objects and organic matter, they explore the original impulse of the Surrealist’s concept of L’Amour Fou (Mad Love). The photographers use this notion, adopted by André Breton in the 1920s to describe what drives someone to abandon everything in the pursuit of desire, to explore the frequently paradoxical relationship between desire and delusion.

They adopt and adapt a host of visual traditions including classical painting, 70s fantasy illustration and Sci-Fi films. Real stage sets are constructed interweaving landscapes captured specifically for the series, which are then projected onto giant backdrops. In these, not so still, still lives, action is also central. Whether movement occurs as slowly as the slide of molasses or with the speed of a burning meteorite, each piece addresses the specific temporalities of different  emotional states. 

The title ‘The Impossibility of Love’ seems, on first encounter, to be a statement of the unobtainable. And yet, such intense emotion can also defy, allude or replenish, keeping its subjects in a constant state of flux. Within the series, possibility becomes more than the necessity of recognising our material limits, but a challenge to look again, with wonder, at the horizon lines of our physical and emotional landscape.

 CREDITS

Creative Direction and Photography / Alessandra Kila and Philip Rusharc
Retouching / Recom Farmhouse