François Dey
03 Sep - 12 Oct 2011
FRANÇOIS DEY
To Do This Week
3 September - 12 October, 2011
In the project space AP of Galerie van Gelder Swiss artist François Dey (1981) shows in his exhibition 'To Do This Week' a dark room/camera made out of cardboard boxes, coats and rags. It is a sculpture developed out of a practical idea. This at the same time camera obscura is mobile with which he can easily reach a table in the middle of the space, on which five still lives seem to be ready for photographic documentation. Six photo shopped and analogue photo prints hang in vertical pairs on a wall, showing balancing boxes, a little house and a tiny man, all built of small Ilford film roll boxes. The title 'Benjamin's House' refers to the mechanical reproduction of a work of art and its assumed loss of aura. In contrary to this François Dey is very interested in the chargeability of a photo, of which in his point of view specifically the background is capable of influencing the aura of the photographed object.
In preparation of a week working in the gallery François Dey composed a list of things to do and to take with him, in short a list of 'To do this week'. Ad hoc he took a series of photos of eyes in close up of people running in and out of the gallery, i.e. the gallerists and colleague-artist Nicolas Chardon who installed his show next to his space. From very nearby he photographed their eyes out of his mobile dark room, in which he also developed and printed the pictures. Now four photo prints of eyes hung in the space stare at the visitor.
François Dey concentrates preferably on minuscule details, which he enlarges by means of the camera eye of his cardboard cabin and in which he prints on old-fashioned photo paper. The used lens has an extreme limited range and therefore he is very close to his object during his photo sessions. He identifies himself with the lens as a kind of living magnifying glass. "When I am in the cabin I feel like a house being human", he says, but after he has achieved a photo session of a 100 seconds exposure time as a consequence of his traditional method, he likes in contrast to keep one's distance and to have the material speak for itself. Then, he is attracted by the cool for him distant nature morte photo settings on the table, enabling him to stand aloof from the magnified eyes, giving space to a much less personal pictorial impact.
To Do This Week
3 September - 12 October, 2011
In the project space AP of Galerie van Gelder Swiss artist François Dey (1981) shows in his exhibition 'To Do This Week' a dark room/camera made out of cardboard boxes, coats and rags. It is a sculpture developed out of a practical idea. This at the same time camera obscura is mobile with which he can easily reach a table in the middle of the space, on which five still lives seem to be ready for photographic documentation. Six photo shopped and analogue photo prints hang in vertical pairs on a wall, showing balancing boxes, a little house and a tiny man, all built of small Ilford film roll boxes. The title 'Benjamin's House' refers to the mechanical reproduction of a work of art and its assumed loss of aura. In contrary to this François Dey is very interested in the chargeability of a photo, of which in his point of view specifically the background is capable of influencing the aura of the photographed object.
In preparation of a week working in the gallery François Dey composed a list of things to do and to take with him, in short a list of 'To do this week'. Ad hoc he took a series of photos of eyes in close up of people running in and out of the gallery, i.e. the gallerists and colleague-artist Nicolas Chardon who installed his show next to his space. From very nearby he photographed their eyes out of his mobile dark room, in which he also developed and printed the pictures. Now four photo prints of eyes hung in the space stare at the visitor.
François Dey concentrates preferably on minuscule details, which he enlarges by means of the camera eye of his cardboard cabin and in which he prints on old-fashioned photo paper. The used lens has an extreme limited range and therefore he is very close to his object during his photo sessions. He identifies himself with the lens as a kind of living magnifying glass. "When I am in the cabin I feel like a house being human", he says, but after he has achieved a photo session of a 100 seconds exposure time as a consequence of his traditional method, he likes in contrast to keep one's distance and to have the material speak for itself. Then, he is attracted by the cool for him distant nature morte photo settings on the table, enabling him to stand aloof from the magnified eyes, giving space to a much less personal pictorial impact.