IT TAKES TIME TO SEE (Geneviève Cadieux, Pascal Grandmaison and Mathieu Grenier)
Pascal Grandmaison
18 juin au 22 août, 2020
Toronto Contemporary Syndicate's inaugural exhibitions
Illuminations, éclats, 2020
IMPRESSION JET D’ENCRE , 47 x 37’’
Arsenal Contemporary Art Toronto
It takes time to see
Geneviève Cadieux, Pascal Grandmaison, Mathieu Grenier
June 18- August 22, 2020
This exhibition was originally supposed to be presented in May 2020, during the 2020 edition of the Scotiabank Contact Festival but had to be postponed when we entered the great long pause. It features the work of three artists from three generations, each prodding the apparatuses and devices of the photographic and the filmic image: Geneviève Cadieux, Pascal Grandmaison and Mathieu Grenier.
The exponential expansion of the community of images over the last few decades has brought forth an incredible wealth of new processes, new materials and new supports unimagined only a few years ago. 3D printing is already old news and we now have a new generation of images created by robots. This formidable revolution has afforded a rich array of new avenues to be explored by artists that allow them to reconsider both the ontological and the formal aspects of what constitute a photograph.
The three artists featured in this exhibition each approach the notion of the mechanical image from a particular position, but all three place their lenses on the natural landscape. Geneviève Cadieux monumental prints encapsulate the intense power of the austere yet rich landscape of mythic Marfa, Texas. Pascal Grandmaison playfully inverts narrative sequences and manipulates filters to weave a poetic space that transforms blandness into ethereal climates. Under Mathieu Grenier’s hand, the youngest of the three, the chemical substances traditionally use to reveal images are diverted to mimic painted gestures.
The juxtaposition of these three bodies of work form a meditative and poetic environment, one much needed amidst these dramatic times. As the great painter Agnes Martin said so well in a 1974 interview with Kate Horsefield and Lynn Blumenthal, it takes time to see.
- René Blouin