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“The starting point for the collage series Espaces intérieurs was the lucky discovery of a stack of interior decor magazines, comprised of 168 issues published and mass-distributed in the 1970s and 1980s, most of which were Quebec Décormag. Tanya has been developing this series over several years, from around 2020 to the present. In a slow, meticulous process, she separates the elements, sorts them, and then assembles them, sometimes involving weeks of reflection between steps. To date, this collage series includes more than 400 pieces.”

— Philippe-Aubert Gauthier and Tanya St-Pierre

 
 

Reading: Nostalgia and Its Discontents by Svetlana Boym

Magazine used in the collages.

Magazine used in the collages.

 
 
Research images from interior decor magazines from the 70s and 80s for the collages.
 
 
 

Magazine used in the collages.

 
 

Documentary about the work of German artist Hannah Höch, a pioneer of collage and photomontage.

 

Reading on collage history: Le Thomas Claire. Une révolution qui s’ignore : pratiques du collage dans les créations ordinaires.

This text invites us to reconsider collage not as a sudden invention of modernity, but art’s appropriation of a long-existent vernacular practice largely ignored by traditional art history.
 
 

Franz Roh, Kamin Kunst (The Art of the Fireplace) (1948-1960)

 

Reading: Du réalisme magique : peinture et poésie croisées by Maryse Jacob

Reading: Theories of Magical Realism by Erik Camayd-Freixas

 
 
 

Reading by Alfred Maury, inventor of the term hypnagogia.

 
 
 
"For me, writing a novel is like having a dream. Writing a novel lets me intentionally dream while I'm still awake. I can continue yesterday's dream today, something you can't normally do in everyday life. It's also a way of descending deep into my own consciousness. So while I see it as dreamlike, it's not fantasy. For me the dreamlike is very real."

— Haruki Murakami, The Guardian (2019)

 
 

While creating In a Hypnagogic State: Installation, the duo listened to more classical jazz, the accelerated pace of which can be found in this video animation.

 

Haruki Murakami, an inspiration to the artists for his use of magical realism, banality and slowness.

 
 

Reading: Anticipation and Aesthetics After Automation by Tanya Ravn Ag

 

The slowness, the captivating atmosphere of Bohren & der Club of Gore, ambient doom jazz, inspired the two artists to develop long and slow videos, such as In a Kind of Waking Dream: Invitation.

 

Reading: The City and Its Uncertain Walls

 
 
 

Making of
Real-time analysis of the video to extract information: average image brightness, average image tint, average image saturation, image detail level detection, shot transition detection, etc.

 

Making of
The video sequences that tend towards white are accompanied by a rise in pitch. The drum and percussion synthesizers are only triggered when the images are very dark, or even completely black, during fades.

 
 
 
“Living architecture is a key concept for this exhibition. Its recurring presence in these magazines speaks volumes: the desire during those decades (the 1970s and 80s) to embrace nature, to transpose it into our everyday interior spaces, to domesticate it. It’s a paradoxical desire: to integrate nature indoors while keeping it under control. Domesticated plants, living walls, selected organic materials—nature appears as a motif, as an aesthetic addition to modern space. As an assertion of authority and control. Furthermore, it expresses an important perspective that seems to us the most appropriate for sharing the tone of our proposal with this series of animations.”

— Philippe-Aubert Gauthier and Tanya St-Pierre
 
 

An influence project for the artists.

 

Reading: Biogenic construction: The new era of civil engineering by Hanlong Liu

 
 

Have a look at the articles on green walls in the architecture magazine Dezeen.

 
 

Architect Matthias Olt presents the benefits and advances of biophilic architecture.