Yann Pocreau: Illuminating the Local
Yann Pocreau Attendre-3, Ancien Collège des Jésuites- réfectoire 2008
Through his exploration of the psychic and historical charge of architectural settings and their effects on the human figure, Montreal-based photographer Yann Pocreau has created a captivating body of work that operates as a series of tableaux vivants for the postmodern age. In previous series such as Attendre or Exercice d’empathie, which depicted the artist’s body awkwardly crouched in, laid out on or dangling from architectural forms such as subway handrails and theatre balconies, Pocreau focused on the distinct characteristics of the space occupied by the human body, with each locale carefully identified in the photographs’ titles. Now, in a new collection of images on view at Galerie Lilian Rodriguez titled Définir la lumière locale, Pocreau has turned his attention to the unique qualities of natural light, replacing the solid presence of a human figure with a study of immediate but immaterial environmental effects. Produced during the artist’s recent travels to locations as diverse as the Todra Gorge in Morocco and Rimouski in eastern Quebec, Pocreau’s photos propose the notion of a local or “native” light that infuses the spaces he investigates with its own particular presence. Taken together, Pocreau’s new images offer a tension between identifiable somewheres and existential nowheres, attesting to the narrative potential of any space when seen in the right light. (372 rue Ste-Catherine O #405, Montreal QC)
Yann Pocreau Définir la lumière locale-14 2009
Yann Pocreau Définir la lumière locale-2 2008
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