Nicholas Crombach

Pheasant

2018

Nicholas Crombach is currently an artist in residence at The Florence Trust in London, UK. Crombach graduated from OCAD University’s Sculpture and Installation program in 2012. He h...

Guillaume Lachapelle’s work combines the real and the imaginary to create miniature environments and scenarios that showcase connections between humans and their everyday worlds. In Extrapolations, Lachapelle extracts seemingly mundane mechanical objects from a typical cityscape – such as radiators, fire hydrants, and balconies – and manipulates their appearance by creating 3D printed models that visually oscillate between the magical and the monstrous. In some of his sculptures, Lachapelle uses photogrammetry – a method that scans a series of two-dimensional photographs or images to create three-dimensional models. While photogrammetry typically enables real-life objects to be accurately reproduced, the artist challenges this paradigm by tampering with the machine’s process, both by accepting the machine’s glitches and by triggering them. When scanning images, the results may not always be what is anticipated, however, for Lachapelle it is about welcoming the unknown. In several examples, he encourages the program to read screenshots of images and extrapolates what should be there, filling in blank data with added images and various shapes. The resulting sculptures are symmetrical and geometric, appearing uncannily familiar like human vertebrae, yet unfamiliar in fantastical abstracted forms. The sculptures merge between two different worlds, bridging human and machine through unexpected adaptations to everyday things. Extrapolations balances between this duality, ultimately reflecting on the increasing dependency humans have on technology in our everyday world. For Lachapelle, this is especially pertinent in a world where technology is continuously developing. The sculptures highlight the dynamic and everchanging relationship between humans and technology, making us question this reliance on technology. In this exhibition, Lachapelle also introduces the inclusion of human characters back into his art practice. He places people in unnatural and impossible exchanges with machines and technology. For instance, while in past exhibitions, he has usually tried to conceal the electronic components that make moving pieces...

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 wo...

A piece from the exhibition "Cosmic Duality" by artist Mr. Mitote. Mitote is a term we use today to describe a lively, noisy, and excessive gathering. It’s also used to depict tumultuous gatherings marked by disorder, commotion, and sometimes even quarrels. In the colonial past, mitote was a celebration commemorating the establishment of the New Spain kingdom, blending local pride with imperial solemnity. However, throughout both ancient times and the present day, mitotes serve as rituals embedded in the culture and religiosity of various indigenous groups in Mexico, such as the Nahua, Cora, Tepehuan, and Huichol. Adorned in rich attire, gathered around a fire amidst the sounds of musical instruments, and under the intoxicating influence of alcoholic beverages, mitotes serve as occasions to invoke sacred beings—whether protective deities of nature or Christian saints associated with agriculture—to pray for bountiful harvests. Mitotes encompass and have always embodied rites, myths, and life. In homage to the artist’s name, this exhibition is presented as a mitote: a celebration displaying the intimate mythologies of its creator through various artistic expressions such as sculpture, artwork, and video. Cosmic Duality is a concept wherein Mr. Mitote delves into memories of his childhood from a contemporary perspective. His mother introduced him at a young age to the traditions and customs of her native Maltrata, Veracruz, a town steeped in the memory of a noble past wherein it fought for its autonomy. Every year on January 1st, to invoke prosperity, the dance of the huehues (meaning “old people” or “elders” in Nahuatl) is performed. According to oral and local traditions, these characters embody foes in a mocked and vanquished manner, dancing beneath the lash of a tiger or devil. Their costumes feature pre-Columbian symbols merged with elements evoking nature, alongside nods to contemporary entertainment culture. Through the observation and interpretation of nature, numerous ancestral cultures created dual cosmologies. Far from viewing opposites, they conceived of dual complementary systems such as chaos-order, cold-heat, humidity-drought, feminine-masculine, and life-death, among others, to uphold cosmic order. Placed within the context of Mexico City, Mr. Mitote reimagines these enduring principles from ancient religious practices alongside contemporary languages. He does so through vibrant entities that blend tradition and innovation, memory and fantasy, past and present, ancestral ceremonies, and urban rituals. Each artwork serves as a reminder that across all latitudes and human territories, culture thrives, tradition evolves continuously, the past is revitalized, and the present shapes the path forward into the future. The body has served as the quintessential conduit bridging two dual dimensions: the human and the divine, the earthly and the celestial, the microcosm and the macrocosm. In several of his artworks, Mr. Mitote invokes propitiatory dances, and ritual practices, aimed at attracting abundant rain and fostering good harvests, many of which entail risking the physical well-being and even the lives of participants. The tiger hunt...