Reception

Thursday, October 1st, 2015  5:00pm to 8:00pm

Galerie St-Laurent + Hill is proud to showcase a new body of work by the artist Étienne Gélinas.

STATEMENT –
My research focuses on the ambiguity of codes and language systems in a semiotic space, in painting today. It is a reflection on the duality of plastic and scientific codes, and on the concept of space and the paradoxical aspect that emerges. I endeavor to link systems, to make them coexist and dialogue. The result generates an interaction between artistic forms and representations of scientific languages.

Different languages become one within the same space.

Space and architecture are central concepts of my approach. Space presents itself abstractly through a detachment of the plans, an overlap of delineated areas, and assemblies of multipoint perspectives which dig into the surface of the painting to give it a sense of depth. An objectively two dimensional space, that becomes three-dimensional rather subjectively through our interpretation of the codes that are presented.

The compositions suggest continuity of the image beyond its physical limits. An approach that helps to highlight the notion of space in my work and which implicitly refers us to the world of cinema and photography by including the concept of framing.

The glossy and glazed finish of some areas in my paintings is reminiscent of the screen by its transparency. The screen is probably what best represents the transformation of our technological culture, propelling us into a new age of “écranique” (screen) prosthesis. This appendix has become, increasingly, that through which we see and transform our environment. By their ubiquity, screens redefine our space references. The multiple screens within our environments profoundly alter the sensitive area we are able to perceive and our perception of the still image.

In a world where the screen has taken the place of reality and tends to make it disappear
(Fischer 2008), has painting, which was originally a window to the world, become the still picture of the “écranique” reality?

Fischer, H. (2008). Les métaphores de l’écran, Prolifération des écrans/Proliferation of screens. Québec