Colecciones de arte

Waterhouse. Vassiviere Island Sculpture, 2002

DESCRIPTION

The two photographs given this name are directly related to the piece in situ, found at Vassivière park, a contemporary art centre located near Limoges, which is especially devoted to installations in natural settings. The translation of the Norwegian title Water House indicates the main inhabitant of the house -the water- in a simple, almost tautological, way.

This intervention is the continuation of Interiors, that began in 1992 at the Henie Onstad Fondations, in Oslo. It portrayed an abandoned cabin the artist had discovered and filled with water in order to observe the effects of nature on this non weather-proofed interior. The main difference between the two pieces is that, in the recent one, the artist has decided everything: its location, as opposed to the water amidst trees and on a sloping terrain, and its manufacture, with wooden boards and very carefully finished. There are four windows that open on to the exterior, three of which are in the largest part of the space. From outside, the cabin adjoins the slope, while on the inside, the floor is level, so that at the moment it is flooded, the surface of the water is level. In situ, this contradiction is only visible after having already experienced the initial surprise of the senses, since the cabin is in a particularly idyllic place, and the senses first react to all of nature's inducements.

Per Barclay made three photographs of this cabin from his privileged vantage points and the image thus poses new questions. For those unfamiliar with the in situ pieces, the verification of the incongruence begins in the place occupied by the photographer at the moment the image was captured. The beholder neither knows anything about where the photos came from nor about the nature of the shiny surface reflecting the window or the landscape it frames. The only thing present is absence. The photographer is nothing but an intruder.

In the series of Interiors, the intention was to inscribe the marks of nature, of particular contrast in the Nordic countries. A closed box permeable to nature presented to us as a scene where colour and matter blend with heat and cold, with day and night. On this occasion, the photos were all taken during the same time of year, whereby the ambiguity appears in the location of the installation at Vassivière. The intensities of light differ from one photograph to another and the shadows seem whimsical to those who do not know what the building is like or how it is oriented. The contrast operates with regard to the slope of the terrain. Two of the photos were taken from a part of another of the lateral windows, and head on. Regardless, the slant in the land is visible from one side only. The third, that which belongs to the Telefónica Collecion, was taken before the lake and shows the three windows with an effect of perspective. This doubling of the points of view is enough to convey a visual paradox that serves as a detonator of a series of questions about the nature of the image. L. A.