Popel Coumou's art is inspired by a naturally occurring play of lines. She tries to simulate these lifeless but highly evocative areas by shaping her own slices of constructed space. She uses a great variety of techniquesto construct the illusion of a place. She then carefully lights this architectural collage to add the suggestion of a third dimension to the photographs she takes of these scenes. By accentuating the effects of light outside and shadows inside these spaces, she furthers both the sense of a flattened representation and the illusion of depth. The end result is an image that seems to hold the mid ground between painterly abstraction and geometric photography.
Her instantly recognisable analogue photographs of collages are gradually moving towards a higher, more abstract plane. By letting go of volume she lets light reign freely. Slowly but steadily she manages to switch background and foreground, resulting in a shimmering emptiness. An emptiness that is further explored in a new series of lightboxes, which use the changing intensity of light to continuously influence the character of the image.