The dizzying universe

In his photographs, French conceptual artist Philippe Ramette combines himself and the landscape in impossible situations to arrive at a world that fills you with this dizzying feeling of an illogical, topsy-turvy universe, writes Hema Vijay

He walks with a perfectly straight back, up tree trunks, the wall of his living room, the vertical sides of huge skyscrapers and parapet walls, on sheer cliff faces that descend dangerously… All this, with his body forming a perfect perpendicular with the ground he covers. Sometimes, he steps out of the ground, as if being born from the earth. Then of course, he walks upright on water, and then proceeds to levitate above water in a prostrated fashion with a flat back and legs casually propped up over a cliff edge; he sometimes floats horizontally above the sea, by holding tight to a ledge that pops up from the sea. And then, he walks on ocean beds too, un-swayed even by an ocean of water, holding ground enough to pose as an upright statue on the ocean bed, and even reads newspapers on an armchair on the oceanic floor. At least, this is what the displayed photographs indicate. Superman returns? Well…

Remember, these photographs have not been edited with Photoshop. Not an optical illusion, but not reality either. It might be the world in between, when belief is suspended. But these bizarre instants of time happen to be real, though manipulated. They are true — at least momentarily, which in any case is the precise reality that photographs capture. Nevertheless, the end result is an onslaught on our standard sense of perception. And the scenario created draws our attention to the forces of nature that we never give a second thought to, otherwise.

French conceptual artist Phillippe Ramette’s paradoxical images inspire intrigue. His works; ‘The Upside Down World Of Philippe Ramette’ are to be displayed in many Indian cities this year. The world looks and feels different when we change posture. You only have to lie down on a terrace or a seashore to appreciate this. Ramette’s images throw a fun-filled dart at our learned beliefs about the universe.

Sculpture-structures

Ramette achieves such seemingly impossible feats by an imaginative use of simple and subtle metallic props. He calls these hidden metal supports ‘sculpture-structures’. For instance, he used metal rings clasped on to his ankles when he hung motionless from the Grimaldi Forum building in Monaco. For the tree climb, he uses metal props that have been fixed on to the tree trunk and merely lies down on it for the photo-shoot. For the Balcony 2 photograph that has him standing on a balcony that faces skywards rather than forwards, and that too on the ocean surface in the middle of Hong Kong harbour with the cityscape in the backdrop, he used a watertight tank to support his body as he looks skywards.

In other instances, the effort that Ramette undertakes is much more complicated and sometimes very, very risky. Such as for the underwater sea walk and other situations in the series ‘Rational Exploration of the Undersea’. For this, Ramette had worn lead weights under his suit and around his ankles to weigh him down to the ocean bed, and while he held his breath for the photo-shoot, he had divers with oxygen tanks swimming to him to supply him with oxygen in between the shoots. And apparently, before these pictures were shot, Ramette had to hold his breath until the waves and the loosened sand settled down and the setting reverted to the usual stillness of the ocean bed.

Attired in incongruous formal suits, Ramette himself is the protagonist, not just the architect of his bizarre photographs. Ramette is savvy enough to get the image to insinuate as close to reality as possible. Observe his skin and you notice the tension in his limbs and the blood rushing to his face. And of course, he is watchful of tiny aspects that may give the game away, such as a tie floating away, and takes care to strap his ties and gel his hair. Ironically, in all of these photographs, Ramette maintains a serene countenance that makes his personality in the photograph seem unmoved by the reality around — be it of the spectacular or the supernatural order. And the official attire he adopts for these photographs merely accentuates the improbability of the situation.

In his fifties now, earlier, Ramette had been better known to the world as a sculptor, and his strange wooden and metal instruments and objects were decidedly fanciful. Later, of course, when photography entered the picture, it brought his witty and subtle creativity more attention than ever before. Because the irrational situations he creates appeals to the mind as well as the heart. But ironically, the photographs reveal little of the meticulous planning that go behind them. While the photographs look spontaneous and speak of the momentary, these gravity-defying postures and situations have been reproduced from his drawings, and involve numerous practical considerations.

A surreal sensation

In some ways, these images are surreal, as they go against the conventional response of the human body to gravity, water and other natural forces and elements. In fact, parallels have been drawn of Ramette’s photographs with the inimitable Buster Keaton.
One doesn’t normally look at art as a tool to invoke and inspire pleasure and thrill in understanding the universe. But Ramette does. Of course, Ramette is scarcely unique among artists in seeking out the picturesque dimensions of the upside down world.

There is a whole dedicated community of artists and photographers who take pleasure in photographing objects and situations or positioning photographs upside down and deducing new meanings and situations from them. However, Ramette does it in an altogether different way, by combining him (as the subject of the photograph) and the landscape in impossible situations to arrive at a world that fills you with this dizzying feeling of an illogical, topsy-turvy universe. And by choosing spectacular backdrops with nature at her vivid best and contrast decidedly with the clichéd business attire and the detached expression that Ramette sports, the awe and sense of irrationality about the workings of nature do get accentuated.

The universe, and how it works, makes you feel a bit unsteady. Ramette’s photographs are a throwback to this sensation, even without the deeper intellectual analysis that normally precedes this sensation. And therein lies the value and charm of these photographs. It is a visual awakening that incites an intellectual one — on the magic of the physical universe we live in; or we think we do.