Jacinthe Lessard-L.
La chambre inversée

From May 29 to July 12, 2014
Opening on May 29 at 8 pm

Quite often the work of Jacinthe Lessard-L. takes the form of a game, of a subtly playful operation governed by rigorous rules which frame conceptually a series of works. In her work, there is a kind of Discourse on Method, because in order to direct her reasoning to its desired end, truth must be sought in the verifiable. The ambiguity between the object and its reproduction, the reversals of scale, the volumes inscribed in a void and vice versa thus serve both to reveal the mechanisms through which the images are created and to make visible what is not.

La chambre inversée began with a sculptural study of one of the elements of the optical mechanics of analogue photography, a now antiquated technology. Moulding a series of camera interiors in silicone, she created voids which make visible and tangible the cavities designed to function only in the dark and hence invisibly. Paradoxically, in La chambre inversée that which is used for seeing demands to be seen.

In this installation, the viewer penetrates a dark, enclosed space. A point of light moves along the walls, providing hope of catching bits of detail. Nothing outside the circle of light is visible. The light turns on and off and moves slowly across the surface. In this image-by-image animation everything that is on the verge of being revealed quickly returns to darkness. The viewer must bend to the path of the light, which determines the path of our gaze along with the rhythm and temporality of the work. At the same time, the soundtrack, carefully constructed by the composer Julien Bilodeau, guides our vision towards the light. Jacinthe Lessard-L. invites us inside the inner chamber of a camera on a human scale.

Jacinthe Lessard-L. holds a master’s degree in visual arts from Concordia University. Her work explores themes such as the nature of photography, its historical role, its transparency and its relation to the referent. She collaborates regularly with other artists, including Eduardo Ralickas and Erika Kierulf, and with Yusuke Nishimura, Frederick Vidal and Sylvia Doebelt for the many-sided exhibition Blue Skies and Cats (B-312 gallery, 2014). Her work has been the subject of exhibitions in Quebec at venues such as Occurrence (2005) and Optica (2009), as well as in Canada and abroad. Her work was included in the event reGénération2: photographes de demain at the Musée de l’Élysée in Lausanne, an exhibition which is touring internationally in 2013-14 and was the subject of a volume published by Thames and Hudson. Her work is currently being shown at the TRUCK gallery (Calgary, until June 14, 2014) and she is working on a book for publication in the fall of 2014.

Julien Bilodeau, the winner of two first prizes at the Conservatoire de musique in Montreal (Serge Provost’s class), studied in Paris and Frankfurt with figures such as Karlheinz Stockhausen. He is one of the most prominent composers of his generation. In 2006 he received the Canada Council for the Arts Robert Flemming Prize and in 2011 he was commissioned by the Montreal Symphony Orchestra to compose a work for the inauguration of the Maison symphonique. His compositions are performed regularly by some of the leading musical ensembles. He is currently completing a doctoral degree in composition at McGill University.

The artist thanks the Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec, the Canada Council for the Arts, PRIM – in particular Bruno Bélanger for his contribution to the sound mix – Thierry Lachapelle, Keven Synnott, Rémy M. Larochelle, Diane Morin, Christophe Viau, Anne-Renée Hotte and Marie-Christine Simard.