J’aurais voulu parler d’érosion | I would have like to speak of erosion
2022
Impression sur papier couché, dimensions variables.Inkjet print on paper, variable dimensions.
"
The piece consiste in a stack of plain paper. A footnote is printed
on each sheet:
"I would have liked to speak of
erosion,Ongoing performance."
I
also saw the work itself as a footnote or legend with respect to the
installation as a whole - a performative caption, or a sculptural
footnote.
Visitors were invited to take a piece of paper from
the pile and thus participate in making it slowly, and almost
imperceptibly, diminish. I like the idea that through this very
simple gesture (taking with them - and so disseminating - the piece)
they actually activate, and are part of, this 'ongoing performance'
... leading to the very real 'erosion' of the stack over time. And
so, in a way, enacting it. ...‘Something wished for’, and yet
‘something realised’.
[...]
The apparent failure
conveyed by expressions like 'I would have liked to', and 'I wish I
had' - such as regretting something that may not have happened, or
that wasn’t achievable - is in fact paradoxically subverted. The
failure fails. First on an intrinsic level, because as soon as a
phrase is written or pronounced, it takes on a form of existence.
Moreover, the context in which I situate these words somehow makes
them operational. The way in which they are put to work enables us to
play with this ambiguity of a potential 'non-occurrence' that occurs;
an occurrence that nevertheless retains an uncertain and multiple
character."
Extract from an interview with Reeme Idris,
published in The Lissome
J’aurais voulu parler d’érosion, impression sur papier couché, dimensions variables, 2022.
I
would have like to speak of erosion, inkjet
print on paper, variable dimensions, 2022.Photos : Camille Charnay