JACK SHAINMAN GALLERY

PASCAL GRANDMAISON
The Inverted Ghost
January 7 - February 6, 2010

Opening reception: Thursday, January 7th, 6 - 8 pm

Jack Shainman Gallery is pleased to present Pascal Grandmaison's inaugural solo exhibition at the gallery and in New York.

Grandmaison refers to this exhibition (which includes a number of large-scale photographic diptychs and two films) as an exploration of reality and truth, how we deal with the transformation of fact, and how subjectiveness can create an illusion of the real. The title of the exhibition "The Inverted Ghost" posits the idea of the polarization between reality and fiction with the ghost alluding to both that which is hidden and that which is invisible. Six photographic diptychs of the same name visually present the "The Inverted Ghost" as an abstract monster-like form made of viscous black oil, split in two, its eyes vacuous holes. The color black represents what might lie beneath, (the inversion of ), the white sheet that typically gives the ghost it's form.

Two other photographic diptych's, Hoping the Light Will Save Us I and II, (both mirror images, one of an eye, the other of a hand extended bracing a rock), and a single photograph, Fake Imagery of a World Upside Down, (depicting a man falling from the ground as if gravity has been inversed), continue Grandmaison's exploration of the natural and supernatural worlds. All three works are inspired by "Moon Rocks" a book about the collection, storage, and study of moon rocks. Rock, which is physically solid, becomes a metaphor for fact. The moon, and the green and bluish tint of the images, refers to Wittgenstein's "Remarks on Color" and science-fiction. This constant pull between reality and fiction and dichotomies is typical of Grandmaison's work which grapples with the complexity of our physical and psychological existence.

Light My Fiction, the most recent of the two films on view, deals with the crossover between and evolution of physical and virtual forms of entertainment. Juxtaposing images from abandoned amusement parks including the one on Coney Island with those of video game consoles from different decades, Grandmaison shows how entertainment has been transformed from a relational experience to a singular game comprised of a complex arrangement of fictional time and virtual space. In The Neutrality Escape Grandmaison similarly takes equipment from another decade, the 16 mm movie camera, Eclair NPR, fabricated in 1963, as his subject. At the time many considered the Eclair movie camera the equivalent of independent cinema due to its portability, and due to the coincidence of its introduction in the medium with "cinema verite". Grandmaison uses the equally revolutionary freedom and acuity of today's camera to render the original mechanical and optical instrument as the power and force of liberty that was sought at the time of its invention.

Grandmaison uses the latest technology to explore the present and beyond while constantly referencing the past without a trace of nostalgia. With one foot grounded in reality and the other set free from gravity's pull he transforms "details of everyday objects into monumental objects fraught with ideas, he suggests a confluence of creative and mechanical processes. The things we invent or design - such as buildings, cameras, or books - are creative expressions. Like photographs, they help to frame our understanding of the world. Grandmaison's images remind us that we are the architects of our own perceptual limitations, and that the creative instinct is bound only by the limits of our own imaginations."

Gallery hours are Tuesday – Saturday from 10 am to 6 pm beginning January 7th. For additional information and photographic material please contact the gallery at info@jackshainman.com.
513 West 20th Street, New York

http://www.jackshainman.com/home.html

2010, 23 JAN - MARCH 21

CUE: ARTIST' VIDEO, VANCOUVER ART GALLERY, VANCOUVER

The Vancouver Art Gallery will turn its exterior into an open-air exhibition space with CUE: Artists’ Videos, a presentation of video art on the Gallery’s Robson Street façade.

CUE: Artists' Videos will feature many of the most innovative and compelling visual artists working in video and film today, including such internationally acclaimed artists as Fischli & Weiss, Gary Hill, William Kentridge, Kimsooja, Tim Lee, Myfanwy McLeod and Paul Wong. Seven programs range from works that address cinematic language in video to those that utilize performances made specifically for the camera, as well as works that examine the age of spectacle or speak to the everyday.

PROGRAM 1 OF 7
BORROWING FROM CINEMA
This program includes works that refer to the well-known aesthetic and narrative strategies of mainstream cinema. Increasingly since the 1990s, many video artists have adopted the conventions of Hollywood cinema by using cast and crew, sets, and high-end post-production, creating works of art that self-consciously comment on, and often critique, this dominant form.

Pascal Grandmaison, Neutrality Escape, 2008, 11'24"
Christian Marclay, Telephones, 1995, 7'30"
Bill Morrison, Light is Calling, 2004, 8'
Marcel Dzama, The Lotus Eaters Trailer, 2005-2007, 1'22"
Patrick Bernatchez, I Feel Cold Today, 2006-2007, 13'28"
Mark Lewis, Algonquin Park, September, 2001, 2'43"
Josh Azzarella, Untitled #100 (Fantasia), 2007-2009, 12'06"
Yang Fudong, Lock Again, 2004, 3'
Steve McQueen, Deadpan, 1997, 4'30"
Christoph Girardet and Matthias Müller, Play, 2003, 7'20"

VIDEO IN THE SHOW: THE NEUTRALITY ESCAPE, 2008


The neutrality escape, installation view, Vancouver Art Gallery, jan. 2010