Verdure
08 Jul - 26 Aug 2006
Verdure
Alexandre Castonguay, Michel de Broin, Louis Joncas, Marie-Jeanne Musiol, Annie Thibault, Luc Courchesne, Marie-Josée Laframboise and Ed Pien
Musing on the verdure of midsummer, Pierre-François Ouellette art contemporain presents a selection of gallery artists featuring the most recent work of Alexandre Castonguay. His latest work, entitled Tree, is a video sculpture constructed of small lcd screens, arranged to approximate the height and shape of a tree planted in a steel surround of an urban setting. Each screen in the composition shows a looped sequence of close-up footage of the respective section in the natural space. The recorded images flicker slightly during the loop, creating a sensation that vacillates between still photography and video, mirroring the fluctuations in perception between the appearance of reality and its simulation inherent to the work. In selecting an object that is seemingly banal, part of the scenery as it were, Castonguay prompts the viewer to see the everyday in a new light, rendered “worthy” of contemplation through technology and its seductive beauty.
Moreover, Tree prompts larger questions about how much of our current experiences are mediated through frames such as television, film, advertising and computer screens. What is the difference then between a “real” tree and a tree that emulates it, duplicates its presence or even betters the encounter by bringing it out of the landscape entirely and places it into an environment that can be better fashioned to suit the needs of the viewer over the practical questions of growing and tending horticulture? By way of its quiet simplicity, Tree prompts the viewer to question whether the perception of the real in time and space has been irrevocably altered by technology, thereby necessitating an entirely new mode of understanding for our interactions with our environments.
© Alexandre Castonguay
Tree, 2006
lcd screens, video players
127 x 76 cm, edition of 3
Alexandre Castonguay, Michel de Broin, Louis Joncas, Marie-Jeanne Musiol, Annie Thibault, Luc Courchesne, Marie-Josée Laframboise and Ed Pien
Musing on the verdure of midsummer, Pierre-François Ouellette art contemporain presents a selection of gallery artists featuring the most recent work of Alexandre Castonguay. His latest work, entitled Tree, is a video sculpture constructed of small lcd screens, arranged to approximate the height and shape of a tree planted in a steel surround of an urban setting. Each screen in the composition shows a looped sequence of close-up footage of the respective section in the natural space. The recorded images flicker slightly during the loop, creating a sensation that vacillates between still photography and video, mirroring the fluctuations in perception between the appearance of reality and its simulation inherent to the work. In selecting an object that is seemingly banal, part of the scenery as it were, Castonguay prompts the viewer to see the everyday in a new light, rendered “worthy” of contemplation through technology and its seductive beauty.
Moreover, Tree prompts larger questions about how much of our current experiences are mediated through frames such as television, film, advertising and computer screens. What is the difference then between a “real” tree and a tree that emulates it, duplicates its presence or even betters the encounter by bringing it out of the landscape entirely and places it into an environment that can be better fashioned to suit the needs of the viewer over the practical questions of growing and tending horticulture? By way of its quiet simplicity, Tree prompts the viewer to question whether the perception of the real in time and space has been irrevocably altered by technology, thereby necessitating an entirely new mode of understanding for our interactions with our environments.
© Alexandre Castonguay
Tree, 2006
lcd screens, video players
127 x 76 cm, edition of 3