Le temps solidifié

Curator: Pascale Beaudet

As author and psychoanalyst Daniel Sibony writes, an artwork is an “object-time” in that it solidifies and contains time, refers to existing moments and produces new ones, i.e., “more-time.” This proposition applies particularly well to the work of Louis-Charles Dionne, who intensifies the idea by “solidifying” everyday objects.

Time cards, government forms, folders, playing cards, a snowbank: the physical manifestation of these objects is reworked in stone or bronze, materials that evoke the history of sculpture and memorials. Symbolizing long periods of time, these materials also embody aspects opposed by modernism. Amorphous and “ignoble” (as relative to “noble”) materials have become emblematic of twentieth century works.

The reversal of perspective that Dionne proposes in the exhibition is not a return to the old order. Using everyday objects, he offers a reading of contemporary life based on time and the bureaucratization of artistic practice. The icons accumulating on a computer screen of folders full of grant applications and calls for work are solidified in marble and composite stone. The snowbank, a symbol of transience, finds its longevity in bronze. Marble and bronze come into a contemporary art centre to assert the endurance of the impermanent.