2018.09.13 – 2018.11.17
La conduite des conduites
Galerie Division, Montreal
This exhibition proposes an interplay between the modeling of behaviour (the term “conduites” in french means ‘pipe’ but also ‘behaviour’ – in this case of objects or bodies) and the channeling of emotional responses, flows and energy. Using common objects – furniture, pipes, flanges, and light bulbs – the artist defamiliarizes technical systems, deforming, rupturing or boring holes in otherwise recognizable forms and encouraging the viewer to untangle each object’s contradictions. The curves and sinuosities of his conduits pit dynamic circulation against the sight of resistance or dissipation. Disturbing the expectations of industrial systems and their promise of efficiency, optimization and innovation, the artist imagines the mechanical differently from the one we encounter in our daily life. The works open gaps in the world, introducing flaws and spaces freed from the causality shaping our relationship with design. Sentient bodies lurk behind these ostensibly technical objects. While we expect them to function and produce, the unpredictable assemblages escape the world of things in search of new and sensitive possibilities.
