AXENÉO7
carton_lrocher_modif2

État des lieux

Lucie Rocher

Exhibition
Opening

État des lieux unfolds as a series of photographic micro-sites; a display of construction sites randomly observed by Lucie Rocher in different cities. Through this formal and material research, the artist explores the features and nuances of the built environment, the urban standardization and transformations resulting from the never-ending deconstruction and immediate reconstruction of increasingly oversized buildings. In addition to these towering structures surrounded by lattices of precarious scaffolding, Rocher also photographs ‘test plots’ in her studio — revelations of her empirical processes developed during artist residencies. The aim is to show the transitory state of these spaces and make them visible in a different way. This dual vision of construction and creation sites gives us the opportunity to grasp Rocher's ambulatory and preparatory reality from a variety of viewpoints. The artist takes analog and digital photography out of its traditional confines through transgressive methods of production and (re)presentation.

For her exhibition at AXENÉO7, Lucie Rocher manipulates and reconstructs the architectural components of La Filature building through illusionist effects, visual stimuli, material machinations and unusual, versatile structural devices. The gallery spaces resemble urban construction sites, due in part to the architectural interventions and the conventional and waste materials on which the photographs are displayed. Integral to these supports, the images create their own variations of spatialization and reveal unexpected formal tensions.

Inside the windowed gallery, a huge photograph, displayed on a light box behind which a fluorescent light hangs, is placed directly on top of its shipping crate. This image comes from the material of a post-residency exhibition at the Palais des Paris in the town of Takasaki near Tokyo, Japan, in 2018. The photograph stands prominently in front of the row of windows like a mise en abyme (image within an image) of its subject and creates an opening, an overflowing that closes the temporal and visual gap between Japan and Gatineau. The painted lines on the wall reinforce the gallery’s architectural components — windows and beams — and add to those already present in the image. Alongside this piece, a 360-degree camera image is printed onto a round mirror. This photographic tondo(circular art) reflects the experiments conducted by Rocher in this space in June during a residency at the DAÏMÔN production centre.

In the subsequent space, the two- and three-dimensional works skillfully manipulate circulation and contemplation. Once inside the gallery, visitors are presented with images exhibited on precisely constructed devices. Coloured interstices as well as divider manipulations evoke the power balance between the gallery space and the works. Hanging or leaning against the wall, sometimes placed on the floor, these installations do not delineate a given path. In a corner of the gallery, a photo mock-up illustrates the trompe-l'oeil (deceptive illusion) principle: a building photographed by Rocher in Gatineau is reconstructed into an illusory geometry through its Plexiglas display medium. A huge shipping crate/base has been placed in the opening that usually connects the galleries. The variation in scale radically alters its perception, interaction and reception, while revealing its formal potential, incidentally reminiscent of the constructions of Simone Forti or Robert Morris. The addition of fluorescent lighting to the strictly architectural approach highlights this particularity of the site.

État des lieux builds associations between the commonplace and the mundane. Through a photographic process that constructs our relationship to urban architecture and transitory creative spaces in a different way, Lucie Rocher enhances the presence of these conditioned and random sites that usually go unnoticed.

— Jean-Michel Quirion, director

Lucie Rocher has been living and working in Montreal since 2013. She obtained her master's degree in Visual Arts at La Sorbonne (Paris, 2011) and recently completed a PhD in Art Studies and Practices at Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM). Her work has been featured in solo exhibitions at the Maison de la Culture Frontenac cultural centre (Montreal, 2017), VU (Quebec City, 2018) and Occurrence (Montreal, 2019). She has also participated in several international residencies (Iceland, 2015, Quebec, 2016, 2019 and Japan, 2019). She was artist-in-residence at Centre de production DAÏMÔN (Gatineau) in June 2020 to prepare for her solo show at AXENÉO7 from September 2020.

Photos

Exhibition view. In the foreground are three photographs printed on a blue insulating construction material. The photos show construction insulation squares placed on the grass. Two geometric sculptures are placed in the space and on the back wall are placed two photographs. These represent architectural structures or construction sites and are installed in an orange square painted on the wall. Exhibition view. Three photographs printed on a blue insulating building material are placed vertically in the space. The photos show construction insulation squares placed on the grass. On the right, a photograph printed on a clay plate is arranged in a row on the floor and the wall. On the back wall is a photograph of a construction site printed on a metallic material. Exhibition view. In the foreground is a geometric sculpture placed on a wooden plinth. The sculpture represents a 3D recomposition of the photograph of a house. On the left and back wall are two plywoods on which is printed a photograph split in two of plywood. Two photographs depicting architectural structures and a construction site are presented on a wall painted 3/4 orange and quarter white. Exhibition view. Three photographs printed on a blue insulating building material are placed vertically in the space. On the back wall is a photograph of a construction site printed on a metallic material and a vertical opening illuminated by neon and partially obstructed by a rectangular wooden volume. A photograph of plywood printed on two plywoods is placed on the back wall and on the left. A large pale blue rectangle is painted on the left wall, and a geometric sculpture is placed in the space. Exhibition view. A large photograph representing an architectural view is placed on a transport crate. On the back wall is an overexposed photograph on which we can discern characters. The window frame creates vertical shadows in the room. Vertical lines are painted on the opposite wall to extend these shadows. A wide-angle photograph of the room is printed on a round mirror placed on a wooden shelf in the corner of the wall. Photo of the showcase in the evening overlooking Hanson Street. In the window, we see an exhibition room with a large photograph placed at an angle on a box in the center of the room. In the corner of the wall on the right, we see a photograph printed on a round mirror. On the left wall is a medium format photograph.

Partners

Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec
Conseil des arts du Canada
Ville de Gatineau
Centre de production DAÏMÔN