A Failed Trompe L’oeil: Noémie Goudal’s Observatoires

If at first glance, you are confused by ‘Observatoires’ you should be—this is precisely Goudal’s intention. The buildings in her photographs do not exist, they are installations; photographs of small-scale architectural models that have been blown up, printed on paper, mounted on card and then set in the landscape. Though the images have a grainy, documentary feel to them, their content is quickly revealed as illusion. The paper constructions have fold lines and dog-ears, and in some images, even the tape that holds the ‘buildings’ together is visible. The closer you look, the more it seems that Goudal has worked to create a deliberately failed trompe l’oeil.