2011 Jessica Bradley , Toronto
Pascal Grandmaison: Soleil Différé
Jessica Bradley Art + Projects, Toronto
communiqué:
Pascal Grandmaison:
Soleil Différé
02 Apr — 30 Apr 2011
1450 Dundas Street West
Jessica Bradley is pleased to present Pascal Grandmaison Soleil Différé, running from April 2 to April 30, 2011. The opening reception will be held on Saturday, April 2 from 4 to 6pm, with the artist in attendance.
Pascal Grandmaison has developed a body of photographic and film work recognized for its profound investigation of the nature of these mediums. Often poetic yet revealingly analytic, Grandmaison examines technologies of visual production and their cultural effects. Whether in his well known Verre series (2003-5) of figures holding a pane of glass or his most recent explorations of abandoned sites such as Coney Island’s amusement park or Montreal’s Expo ’67 grounds, the artist’s compelling images invite questions about history and perception that reach beyond the seductive presence of his subjects.
Grandmaison’s new works address light, an essential element in visual perception and in the making of photographs or moving images. Included in the exhibition are several photographs from the series If one travelled in a straight line (2010). Paradoxically these images depict a curving luminous line that appears to reconfigure itself in an infinite number of forms implying a sculptural space.
In his series Moment of Reason and Believing Cloud, both 2011, the artist turns his attention specifically to the effects of the sun’s natural light. He transforms telescopic images of eruptions on the sun’s surface, and manipulates the sun’s orb with overlapping exposures and colour filters. With these abstracted images of the sun Grandmaison invites the viewer to contemplate the multiple forms light takes, including its physical and psychological effects. The sun’s blinding light and electromagnetic force constitute an inconceivably huge source of energy whose terrifying heat and gigantic explosions are far removed from the pleasurable warmth and light that mark the predictable rhythm of our days and seasons. Grandmaison’s treatment of this scientific and highly symbolic subject questions the presence of light, a phenomenon that is rarely pure or simple.
In his stunning 2010 film Soleil Différé, a sublime light bathes the natural world that encroaches on the artificially created landscape of Expo ’67. Conversely, in Grandmaison’s recently completed film One Eye Open (2011), artificial flowers appear to become real under changing light conditions.
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