Guillaume Lachapelle

Night shift II

2016

Text by Terence Sharpe There is a moment in Andrei Tarkovsky’s Solaris (1972) when the character Hari commits suicide by drinking liquid oxygen. As she is not actually a human, but an artificial hybrid product of the mysterious planet and the protagonists’ memories, she heals rapidly and is alive again minutes later. Her choice to take her own life is poignant, seemingly the action of a being becoming aware of its hopeless infinitude. Her realization that while the men will die on the space station or elsewhere, her existence is that of immortality, a deeply alienating notion that causes her to seek her own destruction. The Montreal artist Guillaume Lachapelle has one work that prompts a sense of eternal alienation that echoes Hari’s tragedy. The work greets the viewer with a empty doorway flanked by clinically white bookshelves...

Text by Terence Sharpe There is a moment in Andrei Tarkovsky’s Solaris (1972) when the character Hari commits suicide by drinking liquid oxygen. As she is not actually a human, but an artificial hybrid product of the mysterious planet and the protagonists’ memories, she heals rapidly and is alive again minutes later. Her choice to take her own life is poignant, seemingly the action of a being becoming aware of its hopeless infinitude. Her realization that while the men will die on the space station or elsewhere, her existence is that of immortality, a deeply alienating notion that causes her to seek her own destruction. The Montreal artist Guillaume Lachapelle has one work that prompts a sense of eternal alienation that echoes Hari’s tragedy. The work greets the viewer with a empty doorway flanked by clinically white bookshelves...

In his recent works sculptor Nicholas Crombach uses the markers of tradition to critique social rituals. Through the employment of the mythology and the rich visual culture of the hunt, Crombach assembles works which revel in contradiction. He has created a series of unexpected juxtapositions that examine the cultural significance and the complex issues percolating around hunting and sporting traditions in the 21st century. For this exhibition, Crombach riffs off the myth of Diana and Actaeon, which provides a poignant framework for his theme. In the original story, Actaeon, the hunter and grandson of King Cadmus, is in the forest with his dogs, when he spies Artemis (Diana) in her bath attended by her nymphs. Diana was the goddess of the hunt, but when the mortal Actaeon sees her, her nymphs try to cover her modesty. She splashes him with water, turning him from a mortal man into a stag, who flees into the forest only to be hunted down and killed by his own dogs. The hunter becomes the hunted. Crombach’s Fetch (2018) refers to the mythology of Diana and Actaeon as he transforms the lofty and classical story of metamorphoses into a game of fetch in the local park, constructed on a grand scale. In Fetch (2018), Crombach creates a hybrid between the art historical imagery from paintings of hounds hunting stags with the flashy colours and synthetic materials of modern day dog chew toys. The sculpture is displayed alongside a variety of chew toys that act as an index for the sculptures interpretation, some transformed into porcelain that has been marked with the aristocratic hunting motifs found on antique English pottery. Here, the assembly of works create a conversation on the blurred boundaries between: histories of domestication, the working relationships we have with animals, contemporary issues of hunting as “play”, tradition and survival. A second major new sculpture “End of the Chase” is a collapsed version of a Victorian period rocking horse housed in London’s V&A Museum Of Childhood. The sculpture responds to the 2014 hunting act that passed in Britain which in turn attempts to obliterate the tradition of hunting with hounds, most commonly associated with the fox hunt...

Nicholas Crombach is interested in the complex interactions between humans and animals. Using sporting and hunting as markers of longstanding traditions of both adversarial and collaborative relationships between humans and animals, Crombach examines the cultural significance and the complex issues percolating domestication and domination, play and survival in the 21st century. Crombach combines references to mythology via a striking aesthetic, creating works which revel in their contradictions and contrasts. Notably, the artist draws from the myth of Diana and Actaeon, which provides a poignant framework for this new series. In Ovid’s tale Actaeon, a hunter and grandson of King Cadmus, is in the forest with his dogs when he spies Artemis (Diana), the venerated goddess of the hunt, in her bath attended by her nymphs. Diana’s nymphs try to cover her modesty as the goddess feels violated by Actaoen’s brash curiosity. Diana splashes water upon Actaeon, robbing him from his ability to speak and turning him from a mortal man into a stag who flees into the forest only to be hunted down and killed by his own dogs. The hunter becomes the hunted. Crombach’s Fetch (2018) refers to the mythology of Diana and Actaeon in its last tragic hour, but the classical story of metamorphoses is presented as a game of fetch in the local park. Crombach creates a hybrid between the art historical imagery from paintings of hounds...

Text by Terence Sharpe There is a moment in Andrei Tarkovsky’s Solaris (1972) when the character Hari commits suicide by drinking liquid oxygen. As she is not actually a human, but an artificial hybrid product of the mysterious planet and the protagonists’ memories, she heals rapidly and is alive again minutes later. Her choice to take her own life is poignant, seemingly the action of a being becoming aware of its hopeless infinitude. Her realization that while the men will die on the space station or elsewhere, her existence is that of immortality, a deeply alienating notion that causes her to seek her own destruction. The Montreal artist Guillaume Lachapelle has one work that prompts a sense of eternal alienation that echoes Hari’s tragedy. The work greets the viewer with a empty doorway flanked by clinically white bookshelves...

Karine Payette builds vast dreamlike settings from hyperrealistic, banal objects in order to produce something narrative that evokes the precariousness of the world. The artist plays...

Thierry Job was born in Marseille, France and currently lives in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico. He studied art at the School of Beaux Arts in Paris. His works as been exhibited at th...

KAWS Kachamukku 2022: complete set of 2 works: KAWS Kachamukku was born out of a unique collaboration between KAWS and the popular children’s Japanese ...

Andy Harding is a sculptor living and working in Nashville, TN. A range of interests from Eastern philosophy to contemporary science inspire and influence his work, but the practical...

CICA Vancouver is proud to release this brand new limited edition sculpture, in collaboration with Hajime Sorayama Studio and Nanzuka. This sculpture is a miniature version of the “Untitled_Sexy Robot_Space traveler” sculpture by Hajime Sorayama. LIMITED EDITION 2023 ED: 300 + AP: 50 ABS, alloy, kirsite, aluminum alloy, acrylic, PP, TPE, LED Work size (H x W x D): 15.75 x 8.5 x 8.25 in Package size (H x W x D): 25.2 x 13.4 x 12.2 in Weight:  33lb Authentication ZHEN. authentication system is equipped in the item as an initiative to prevent forgery of the product. For the verification, the purchaser needs to agree to share one’s personal information with ZHEN. for authentication purposes. The purchaser’s information will never be sold nor transferred. ZHEN. is an art authentication platform that makes authentication and provenance radically transparent. Powered by blockchain, ZHEN. guarantees the authenticity of the purchased artwork with a simple tap via ZHEN. mobile app. Instructions on how to use ZHEN. is included in the package. To learn more about ZHEN., please read the Privacy Policy...

Image, Imagination, Imitation: we can think these three words come from the roots √Im, but it’s not true. It’s necessary to combine the proposition in with mi, that is, √Mei, to obtain this kind of words. √Mei recalls something that catch the attention, that is intermittent and that can change. For the three following artworks we decided to decline the root starting from the concepts of light and sound, using a set of different languages, such as English, Russian, Sanskrit, Latin, Avestan, Greek and Persian, and to create shapes...

Image, Imagination, Imitation: we can think these three words come from the roots √Im, but it’s not true. It’s necessary to combine the proposition in with mi, that is, √Mei, to obta...