Dominique Ghesquière
21 Nov 2009 - 09 Jan 2010
DOMINIQUE GHESQUIÈRE
"penser rêver"
November 21 - January 9, 2010
Dominique Ghesquière lives and works in Paris. After graduating from the Lyon Beaux-Arts School, she spent two years in residency at the Rijksakademie in Amsterdam (2002-2003). The Burgundy FRAC has bought six of her works and a monography is due in 2010.
Trompe-l’œil has a special slow effect function, more subtle than merely creating an immediate if staggering illusion, produced by planned perspective and true to life imitation: a sunset painted in a dead end street, the veins in a marmor mantelpiece. Her illusion does not mean hiding an hideous reality. Whereas trompe-l’œil aims at deceiving our perception, Dominique Ghesquière’s objects slowly deliver their true nature without malice, without artifice and above all without pretence. They do not cheat, we are mistaken: a genuine perception of reality cannot be reached by a swift and superficial scan. On the other end too much contemplation can dissolve its tangibility.
Instead of setting up spectacular props using trivial materials, Dominique Ghesquière reverses the trompe-l’œil process. She remakes or has commonplace objects remade (white crockery, basic furniture, tools, scaffolding, etc.) out of inadequate or artificially worn material – without emphasizing the technical achievement. Assiettes (plates) just out of the oven already show knife dents, escabeau (stepladder) are baked in white fragile crockery instead of light aluminium. Each object contradicts our usual and immediate perception of our environment. But the automatic perception of glass as glass, brick as brick is being questioned with the use of unexpected materials.
As the title of the exhibition « penser rêver » (« thinking dreaming ») suggests, we should think twice about our observations and judgments, ponder and doubt more. In pluie permanente (permanent rain), the raindrops on the pane are not water but glass: time has stopped flowing. Mur de sable (sandwall) is made of sand bricks ready to ooze out. Tapis (carpet) is a carpet of wool threads which have not been woven. Partition pour tous (score for everyone) lines up musical notes on a single stave, along a twelve meters strip, substituting a continuously rolling magnetic tape for traditional score sheets. Punctuated with tempo indications – doux, calme, nerveux or sans prendre de respiration – partition pour tous weaves tonalities together on paper as well as in one’s imagination. These four works showing structures which could be blown away by a mere gust of wind or a kick. « Vague scélérate » (« treacherous wave ») a recent exhibition of the artist at the BF15 (Lyon) showed a wooden floor whose boards seemed to have been blown out by a powerful storm. Escabeau, rideau de fer et journaux brodés (stepladder, railings and newspapers) showcase themselves as solid replicas, unless one starts using them.
Newspapers are a recurrent theme of hers, transparent, crumpled, or else embroidered: a few pages selected for their poetic titles or pleasant images are converted into coton industrial embroidery, reminding us of children’s untearable fabric books. But the news, embroidered in small print and washed of any significant current issue seems unreadable just like another way of stopping time in a dreamy contemplation. Dominique Ghesquière’s objects warp familiarity into something else. Being identical shapes made of unusual materials, they question and puzzle our pretence to see and understand simultaneously.
Hélène Meisel
"penser rêver"
November 21 - January 9, 2010
Dominique Ghesquière lives and works in Paris. After graduating from the Lyon Beaux-Arts School, she spent two years in residency at the Rijksakademie in Amsterdam (2002-2003). The Burgundy FRAC has bought six of her works and a monography is due in 2010.
Trompe-l’œil has a special slow effect function, more subtle than merely creating an immediate if staggering illusion, produced by planned perspective and true to life imitation: a sunset painted in a dead end street, the veins in a marmor mantelpiece. Her illusion does not mean hiding an hideous reality. Whereas trompe-l’œil aims at deceiving our perception, Dominique Ghesquière’s objects slowly deliver their true nature without malice, without artifice and above all without pretence. They do not cheat, we are mistaken: a genuine perception of reality cannot be reached by a swift and superficial scan. On the other end too much contemplation can dissolve its tangibility.
Instead of setting up spectacular props using trivial materials, Dominique Ghesquière reverses the trompe-l’œil process. She remakes or has commonplace objects remade (white crockery, basic furniture, tools, scaffolding, etc.) out of inadequate or artificially worn material – without emphasizing the technical achievement. Assiettes (plates) just out of the oven already show knife dents, escabeau (stepladder) are baked in white fragile crockery instead of light aluminium. Each object contradicts our usual and immediate perception of our environment. But the automatic perception of glass as glass, brick as brick is being questioned with the use of unexpected materials.
As the title of the exhibition « penser rêver » (« thinking dreaming ») suggests, we should think twice about our observations and judgments, ponder and doubt more. In pluie permanente (permanent rain), the raindrops on the pane are not water but glass: time has stopped flowing. Mur de sable (sandwall) is made of sand bricks ready to ooze out. Tapis (carpet) is a carpet of wool threads which have not been woven. Partition pour tous (score for everyone) lines up musical notes on a single stave, along a twelve meters strip, substituting a continuously rolling magnetic tape for traditional score sheets. Punctuated with tempo indications – doux, calme, nerveux or sans prendre de respiration – partition pour tous weaves tonalities together on paper as well as in one’s imagination. These four works showing structures which could be blown away by a mere gust of wind or a kick. « Vague scélérate » (« treacherous wave ») a recent exhibition of the artist at the BF15 (Lyon) showed a wooden floor whose boards seemed to have been blown out by a powerful storm. Escabeau, rideau de fer et journaux brodés (stepladder, railings and newspapers) showcase themselves as solid replicas, unless one starts using them.
Newspapers are a recurrent theme of hers, transparent, crumpled, or else embroidered: a few pages selected for their poetic titles or pleasant images are converted into coton industrial embroidery, reminding us of children’s untearable fabric books. But the news, embroidered in small print and washed of any significant current issue seems unreadable just like another way of stopping time in a dreamy contemplation. Dominique Ghesquière’s objects warp familiarity into something else. Being identical shapes made of unusual materials, they question and puzzle our pretence to see and understand simultaneously.
Hélène Meisel