Since the start of his career, Chuck Samuels has questioned how photography works and how the most emblematic images in the history of photography are articulated. In the early 1990s, Samuels explored this idea by appropriating classic images from the history of photography and cinema. While selecting cult works from various archives, the artist jokingly confessed that he instead became captivated by his own image. He thus began to photograph and film himself, and inserting his face in lieu of the main protagonist’s visage in each image or clip. The results are remarkable. Over time, by turning the camera on himself, “these intrusions” became the common element of his practice. With these self-portraits, Samuels insinuates himself into the history of photography, even into the photograph itself. Consciously flirting with the absurd, Samuels’ practice involves “becoming photography,” like a falsely narcissistic adventure, like a combination of the photographer and the photographic, resulting in a singular approach that is executed with subtlety, erudition, and humour.

The works featured at EXPRESSION are part of a two-part exhibition presented conjointly with Plein sud, centre d’art actuel à Longueuil, covering three decades of the artist’s career (1990-2020). EXPRESSION presents the artist’s most recent bodies of work, produced since 2015. These include The Photographer (2015), in which Samuels reflects on his own place within the history of the photographic self-portrait. In After (2020), he creates remakes that revisit the art of appropriation, while On Photography (2020) examines the role of the critic and their authority within the art world. And finally, The Complete Photographer (2020) explores the role of the photography magazine.

Artist’s acknowledgements
The Photographer and On Photography were supported by the Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec. The Photographer was produced during a creative residency at the Centre de production DAÏMÕN. On Photography, After, and The Complete Photographer were produced during a residency at L’imprimerie, centre d’artistes. After Gordon, part of the After series, was produced with support from OBORO’s Production Assistance Program. The artist would like to thank each of these organizations for their support.

Chuck Samuels, video of the exhibition Becoming photography - 2015-2020 presented at EXPRESSION, 2 min 10 s. © NousTV

[French only]

L’exposition des finissant.e.s du programme Arts visuels et médiatiques du Cégep de Saint-Hyacinthe

En ces temps de pandémie, le choix du titre (Dé)masqué.e.s est quelque peu ironique. Alors qu’aucun masque physique ne sera enlevé, les 16 étudiant.e.s dévoileront tout de même leur vrai visage. Ils se mettent à nu dans ce projet final dans lequel ils se sont investis corps et âme, sans compter leur temps. En se démasquant, ils s’interrogent sur le rôle et l’importance de l’art dans leur vie et pour la société.

Inédites, les œuvres présentées témoignent du cheminement personnel et artistique des étudiant.e.s qui partagent ainsi leur vision du monde en une variété de techniques : dessin, peinture, sculpture, installation, animation, etc. Cette exposition met en lumière leur travail acharné et leur quête de singularité à travers l’acte de création.

“What are some tactics for cultivating the experience of our selves as vibrant matter?”
(Jane Bennett, 2010)

Matter lives, transforms itself, proliferates; it follows a trajectory that is essential to its vitality. Plants, rocks, plastics, people, electricity, waste, metals—matter is part of a range of processual and interconnected relationships. It persists, is incessant and cyclical, whether it is desired or unwelcome, natural or fabricated.

The active presence of matter in our daily lives reveals its power to amass stories, memories and affects, forcing us, as human beings, to rethink our role and our attitude towards it, and to reposition ourselves within a changing world. By distancing ourselves from the binary opposition of the living and non-living, subject and object, we must now recognize how matter is engaged and how it can impact the world.

Jane Bennett’s question reflects our own ability to act, but this time, by seeking a potentially equal relationship with the expressive force of the entities that surround us. How should we behave as vibrant matter, and more importantly, how should we humbly engage with the vital energy that inhabits all non-living things?

Kuh Del Rosario salvages and integrates everyday objects and natural materials into her installation works, and positions herself as their equal in an attempt to extract new narratives from them. By combining and exploring notions of alchemy, she saves these materials from probable loss, thereby prolonging their lives.

In her sculptures, installations, and photographs, Julie Roch-Cuerrier explores matter’s transformational process through a meticulous observation of the passage of time. What emerges is the significant presence of verdigris—the result of oxidized copper—which in turn becomes the materialization of time in spectral form, whereby the artist engages in the ongoing recycling of this volatile pigment in different bodies of work.

Ingrid Tremblay’s work examines the notion of trace—ones left by time, nature, sculptural gestures, and memories. Through a laborious process and a penchant for using both traditional and contemporary techniques, she highlights the ability of material to carry both personal and shared mythologies.

In keeping with current neo-materialist theories, this exhibition calls into question our anthropocentric relationship with matter and the notion that it only serves humanity’s purpose. To recognize the active power of matter is to admit that the human enterprise is no longer the sole dominant force. Could human agency, which is linked to an inert concept of matter and has long been imposed on our ecology and resources, be re-evaluated? Could we not consider a world where living and non-living things respectfully overlap within a vital ecology?

Video from the group exhbition Vers des cycles mouvants - Towards Moving Cycles presented at EXPRESSION, 3 min 20 s. © NousTV