Noel sees Leon, from The Palindromes series, C-print diptych, Left panel: 120in x 40in - Right panel: 40in x 40in or Left panel: 90in x 30in - Right panel: 30in x 30in

Noon, from the Palindromes series, C-print diptych, Left panel: 120in x 40in - Right panel: 40in x 40in or Left panel: 90in x 30in - Right panel: 30in x 30in

Never odd or even, from the Palindromes series, C-print diptych, Left panel: 120in x 40in - Right panel: 40in x 40in or Left panel: 90in x 30in - Right panel: 30in x 30in

Level 11, from the Palindromes series, C-print diptych, Left panel: 120in x 40in - Right panel: 40in x 40in or Left panel: 90in x 30in - Right panel: 30in x 30in

The Palindromes explore how the environments we build also build us. The diptychs put a subject and its environment side by side, a portrait and a symmetrical urban landscape. This mirroring system resonates in the palindromic titles, such as ‘Noon’ A formal rhetoric echoes between both panels. Signs connect and disconnect, the twins are together but alone, they are part of this architecture and separated from it. These modern and dual environments are the characters mental landscapes.

Laetitia Soulier

The Palindromes series consists of sets of diptychs, each pairing a symmetrical landscape with a portrait of identical twins. Though the landscapes are of everyday transitional spaces such as parking lots and subway stations, Soulier captures select scenes at precise junctures to reveal the modern and quotidian at its most uncanny. The twins are situated in studio recreations based on their accompanying scenes, further compounding the doubling motif and deepening the sense of hyperreality elicited by the diptychs. Even the works’ palindromic titles engage Soulier’s mirroring system, as titles like ‘Never odd or even’ and ‘Level 11’ pitch her visual feedback loops into semantic overdrive.

Jesse Patrick Martin