Patrick Mikhail Editions

Two images from a new photographic series, State of Flux, appear in Patrick Mikhail Editions. In-house exhibit February 15 to March 4, 2012, Patrick Mikhail Gallery; Papier 12 Art Fair, Montreal, April 2012; Toronto International Art Fair, October 2012

Working on Currents led to several new bodies of work in video and photography. State of Flux, a series of photographs, River Suite, a composite photo-work, and Wave Patterns, a short video projection, all employ water imagery within a conceptual framework to investigate the intersections between the dualities of representation/abstraction, rural/urban, and nature/culture. Drawing on the evocative potential of water and its embodiment of continual change, each photograph in the State of Flux series embraces the vitality of one particular instant. These unusual images reveal a paradoxical relationship to the “real”. Although each photograph captures a specific place and time that occurred in front of the camera, the resulting images transcend the familiar details and conventions of land- or water-scape to create newly abstracted worlds. While the medium of photography allows the distillation of gestures and forms that are otherwise blurred and imperceptible to the naked eye, these hyper-real photographs nonetheless have strong references to modernist painting in their abstraction and engagement with surface. The unidentified reflections remain ambiguous and enigmatic, as texture, colour and movement evoke an intuitive response. In our accelerated world of perpetual change and quick perceptions, each work offers a moment to savour, plucked from the water’s constant state of flux for our prolonged contemplation.