Lovers, liars and laughter

This work extends Wiebke Leister's earlier interest in the mouth and the photographic portrayal of laughing and smiling, at the heart of her cycle 'Unjoyful Laughter and the Non-Likeness of Photographic Portraiture' (2006).

Her investigation into kissing and being kissed is now placing the lips, which do not only smile but kiss, as a central but absent presence, similarly about our boundaries and how we recognize ourselves and others. In particular, the project looks at the kiss as a metaphorical structure - as a gesture of exchange, desire or demand, telling stories of potential intimacy between giving and taking. It addresses the lover´s kiss as hidden, concealed by the very anatomy of both faces. Tracing the shadow between the embracing profiles, her works play with the invisible and unattainable features of love, including promises and failures of visual representation.

The work was published by the Photography and the Archive Research Centre (PARC) as an issue of the research publication 'Fieldstudy', including the photographic series 'Ever After' alongside the story 'Lovers, Liars and Laughter', the drawings 'Days on End' and the text-based work 'At a Glance', all made in 2008.

'Fieldstudy 11' was launched at the Institute of Contemporary Arts in London on 14 November 2008 with a performance by the Shakespearean actor Kenneth Gilbert. Other speakers were Melanie Manchot, AL Rees and Lisa Le Feuvre.

The photographs were also shown as a five meters high outdoor installation on the front of LCC at the Elephant & Castle roundabout for three months during the summer of 2009