A Close Look at Georges Rousse’s Single-Perspective Installations

Even if the final representation of Georges Rousse’s work is a single-perspective photograph, the French artist is a man of several disciplines. The photographer also considers himself a sculptor, painter, and architect, having transformed nondescript, soon-to-be-demolished spaces into transcendental pieces for decades. A Starbucks at The Cosmopolitan hotel in Las Vegas doesn’t share the same fate as those abandoned buildings, yet even in this bustling hub, Rousse creates a singular moment, viewable in just one spot.

A statement on the artist’s website puts his charge into words: “His raw material is space,” it says. “[ … ] Taking his inspiration from a site’s architectonic quality and the light he finds there, he quickly chooses a “fragment” and creates a mise-en-scène, keeping in mind his ultimate goal, creating a photographic image. In these empty spaces, Georges Rousse constructs a kind of utopia that projects his vision of the world—his imaginary universe.”

Step to the left or the right of this view, and you may find an interesting collection of shapes and shades. You may even find something worth capturing with your own camera. However, in a piece by Rousse, there’s a symphony that can only be truly released at the seat of the conductor. And his knack for creating seemingly simple geometric patterns, even if they are meticulously rendered, gives his works a timeless quality.