Alain Paiement: Instants, Maybe

Vernissage: March 14, 3pm – 5pm with the artist present.

Instants, maybe

In the second phase of his 2014-2015 solo project at Gallery Hugues Charbonneau, Alain Paiement delves deep into the imposing photo bank that represents all the images he has captured throughout his thirty-year career, but which until now have almost never been put to use.

The artist states, “Basically, I’ve always ‘taken’ photos. I find photographic subjects wherever I go. There are hundreds. They are captured instantly, usually with hand held camera and no tripod.”

Alain Paiement is redefining the temporality of his “snapshots,” a term that usually suggests spontaneity and immediacy, in opposition to premeditated staging. Yet, by rigorous technical manipulation of the image, each work in this series combines several individual photographs. As a result we see multiple realities, ‘images of images’, obtained through overlay, juxtaposition, collage and other ways of stitching moments together.

This series embodies Paiement’s most recent research: it situates his increasing interest in the notion of time by bringing together different temporalities within his creative process (recent manipulations of old photographs, for example). These works reflect on the instantaneous nature of contemporary culture and the importance of the present in linking society to its past and to its immanent future.

Alain Paiement

Alain Paiement has been a key figure in contemporary Canadian photography. He researches the possibilities of how photography unfolds through time and space and translates this into images. Through installation, photo series, and video, Paiement experiments with perspective, telescopic views and lenses, as well as scanning, to explore the constantly changing relationship between the subject, its gaze and its environment.

Paiement’s work has been presented in numerous exhibitions since the 1980s throughout Canada and the United States, but also in Europe, Latin America, and Asia. His work has frequently featured in exhibition catalogues, monographs and articles in various media and specialised journals. He has also realised many public art works, notably Tessellations sans fin (2012) at the CHUM Research Centre in Montreal. Paiement’s work is held in major public and private collections in Canada, the United States, Spain and Belgium.