EFFLEUREMENTS :: March 28 - April 26, 2008 :: Opening: March 28, 5:00 pm :: Society for Art and Technology [SAT], 1201 Saint-Laurent Boulevard, Quebec.

An exhibition from the curator Nicole Gingras who joins the work of two artists fascinated by light, movement and sound. Diane Morin transforms her favourite material, light, into singular shadow plays, awash in penetrating sounds. The videos of Nelly-Eve Rajotte, who is just as sensitive to the power of light and sound, create destabilising experiences which may cause some viewers to lose their spatio-temporal bearings.

Nelly-Eve Rajotte leads the viewer into a world of constantly-changing visual and sound impressions. By superimposing several layers of images and slowing down their movements as they subtly slide over each other she suggests a state of weightlessness or a feeling of vertigo. The two pieces on exhibit here are examples of this. The video Ylö (2008) is an attempt to suspend time to create a feeling of elevation. Once again, she has designed a highly-dramatic soundtrack which contributes to the perceptible yet indescribable sensation of floating or an in-between state suggested by the work’s editing. With SI IS (2008), an installation made up of two projection screens and a quadraphonic soundtrack, Nelly-Eve Rajotte continues to explore what appear to be nameless spaces. Video enables her to film sentient and intimate spaces, and here she has turned to a deserted gas station, a non-space nevertheless endowed with undeniable dream-like qualities. The images projected onto the two screens reveal to the visitor two spaces which reverberate within each other. Reflections, shadows, transparencies and superimposed images contribute to our perception of an ambiguous, altering space. In search of connections between digital images and sound, she is attracted to the movement of light on the features of buildings and anonymous spaces, which she appropriates and transforms into abstract compositions.

Diane Morin continues her exploration of animated objects of her own design, using fragments of typewriters, calculators, knitting machines, record players, toys and musical instruments as well as found objects, electronic control circuits and electroluminescent diodes. She is interested in the shadows projected by moving objects she designs, in the traces they leave in the wake of their slow movements. Desirous of giving or giving back movement to inanimate objects and interested in the way light strikes the objects she selects, Diane Morin furthers her investigation into light as a means of revelation: shadow, trace, imprint, image, form, movement. Her work Capteurs d’ombres (“Shadow Catchers”, 2006-08) is a visual and sound installation made up of various items attached to the gallery wall, each showing forms in movement: choreographies of unusual objects and shadow plays. Plunged into darkness, these kinetic sound sculptures come alive when subtly and discreetly lit by moments of flashing, twinkling or pulsing light. Sounds help lead the viewer into a space in which time appears to be suspended.

Artists biography

Diane Morin was born in the Kamouraska region of Quebec and now lives and works in Montreal. She has been creating installations since 1998, joining her work with kinetic art and new media. She obtained an M.F.A. in fine arts (studio art) from Concordia University in 2003. Her work is currently being exhibited at VU in Quebec City. In 2006, she participated in Meanderings (curated by Nicole Gingras) at DAÏMÕN and AXENÉO7 in Gatineau and in the Biennale nationale de sculpture contemporaine in Trois-Rivières. Her work has been the subject of solo exhibitions at Optica in Montreal and Mercer Union in Toronto in 2007, at Circa in Montreal in 2005 and at La chambre blanche in Quebec City in 2001, among other places.

Nelly-Eve Rajotte lives and works in Montreal. She has been a member of Perte de Signal since 2003. In 2006, she obtained an M.F.A. in visual and media arts at UQAM. She works in single-track digital video, installation and sound art. Her videos have been seen in various festivals in Canada, the United States, South America and Europe. In Montreal, her installations have been exhibited at Parisian Laundry, Fonderie Darling, the Occurrence gallery, the Clark gallery and as part of Ectoplasmes 5 x 2 (an event curated by Nicole Gingras and Eric Mattson at SAT; production : MINUTE).

Nicole Gingras lives in Montreal. She is an author and independent curator with an interest in images and sound. In 2007, she published Puisqu’à toute fin correspond – Entretiens about the work of the Montreal artist Raymond Gervais.