francine LeClercq: [09] [12] Installation [3:2]

Large scale painting installation using thermochromic ink which allow the work to be perceived as monochrome or image depending on the temperature of the room and the proximity of the viewer.

[3:2]

SOHO2O CHELSEA GALLERY
511 West 25th Street, New York NY

September 29 – October 24, 2009

The work consists of painted cells measuring 3 x 2 inches; 3:2 is the aspect ratio in photography now adopted for the LCD screens of digital devices such as the cameras, cell phones and the likes. They will fill the walls of Gallery II.

The clear association is to our bombastic ability to fix and register images on the fly with the aid of these devices, the new format of our perception. In concert halls, press conferences, in streets and parks, in more or lesser degrees the scenario evokes the image of a vaporized display of memories scattered about like gas particles in suspense, fully liberated from the captivity of their once fleshy bunker, the body. The half apocalyptic half ephemeral scene where knowledge is thus remotely held, in a (yet) senseless, un-felt state seems to carry with it the potential nearing of the death of sensation. Hence the gallery’s classic role as a match making box between the subject and the object, the see-er and the see-ee, is employed to facilitate a tête-à-tête with this contemporary condition and restore, however temporarily an atmosphere of sensation or the sensible.

In this respect anything other than direct exchange between the work and the viewer would render the situation picturesque. Painting, the medium by which this operation is motivated would need to be charged, sensitized. A coat of thermochromic ink is applied to cells each bearing an image, causing a nuance such that they may be perceived as an opaque monochrome, a blur or transparent where the underlying image is fully visible depending on temperature and location, the proximity of bodies and heat exchange.

It is an experiment whereby art is the moment of a mutual dependency fermented by an active participation of the senses.

Ali Soltani, 2009