This review of Julien Gardair, Camera Locus: La Chevelure at The Invisible Dog in Brooklyn was initially published in the Huffington Post 03/15/2011
Julien Gardair.
Camera Locus 2, La Chevelure. 2011.
The Invisible Dog, Brooklyn.
Courtesy of the artist.
It takes a while to fully embrace artist Julien Gardair' s new sitespecific installation, Camera Locus 2, in the basement of The Invisible Dog, a Brooklyn Art center.
First, you feel immersed (and a bit disoriented) in an enchanted grotto with flickering and colorful lights, rolling and moving forms and figures.
Gardair delved for a couple of weeks into the building's remains and history to gather ideas and visual elements in order to give life to new stories in this highly sitespecific work that is very original both visually and conceptually.
The artist, using as he often does many constraints, creates an installation with projected light that redefines the entire architecture of the place. Each plane of the space (and at times the viewer's body) becomes an independent screen. With only one projector as the light source and the artist's multiple skills, the painted cave simultaneously put the viewer in a strong light and suck him up. The soundtrack of the piece, La Chevelure by Claude Debussy, sometimes deepens this impression of being on stage and at other times gives the feeling of being the witness to a strange, emotionally charged, pulsating story.
Anne Couillaud