________ White heat
For her residency, Theodora Barat obstructs Glassbox’s space. Different crosspieces form a moving construction, intertwining, overlapping and dissociating itself as the visitor moves. Two projectors scan the space and script it. They reveal in fragments, between shadow and glare: a pure projection evoking a primitive cinema. From the Cavern to Film Noir, the work calls on a bright imagination on the edge of the city. We are waiting for James Cagney to exclaim: “Made it, Ma! Top of the world!”
Theodora Barat develops her work in resonance with two nocturnal texts: the Platonic allegory of the Cave and Tony Smith’s story about a trip on a highway under construction. On one side – in the Cave – there is no or no more image, only its luminous radiation remains. This light reveals as much as it blinds. The surrounding space – its walls – acts as a screen, retain light, embody it, reveal what it contains, until it becomes a reflective surface. Only the luminous echo generated by off-field events seems to reach us.
On the other hand, Tony Smith and his automotive experience opens up a more film-like world. The point of view is scrolling. The stroller leads into a nocturnal landscape transformed by artificial light. Like the construction site described in Smith’s text, Theodora Barat focuses on these building materials and places in transformation, without yet defined status, similar to upside-down ruins. She suspends them in a permanent in between, in a frozen transition. Thus deprived of their function, they unfold their plasticity, transfigured by this acidic light.
INFO
residency > 02.03 to 02.20.14
exhibition> 02.20 to 03.15.14
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