PRESS RELEASE

Four Frames


Manf d'Art 10 - Illusions Are Real

Lieu Historique National Cartier-Brébeuf

Quebec City, Canada


FEBRUARY 19 – APRIL 24, 2022


Meredith James is interested in the failure of our senses and the liminal gaps that open when what we think we are seeing does not correspond to what is really there. The staging of the architecturally deployed sculptures provokes numerous discrepancies in spatial and visual perception. By creating devices that confuse the senses, the artist reveals the unsettling inconsistencies underlying our ways of receiving the world, which can deceive us at any moment.


James's spaces are ambiguous yet strangely familiar, as they incorporate domestic elements that imitate furniture, objects, and décor usually found in modest homes, provoking a vague feeling of déjà vu. Four Frames is an immersive sculpture that sparks this sense of recognition with a trompe l'oeil painted set directly inspired by the retro aesthetic in the 1973 film Hotel Monterey. The installation consists of a series of partitions configured into concentric squares with doors to allow visitors to pass through. To artificially amplify the effect of depth in the apartment, the artist subtly warps the represented objects (using variations in scale and stretching) to create a forced perspective. Only once the successive rooms are entered is the subterfuge revealed and visitors gradually become aware of the physical impossibility of the painted space, where the distance between the walls is much narrower than initially imagined.


https://manifdart.org/manif-10/art-public/

Four Frames, 2022. wood and acrylic paint. 14 x 14 x 10 feet.

Installation at Lieu Historique National Cartier-Brébeuf, Quebec City.


Photo credit: Charles-Frédérick Ouellet and Manif d'art

Photo credit: Charles-Frédérick Ouellet and Manif d'art

Photo credit: Charles-Frédérick Ouellet and Manif d'art

Photo credit: Charles-Frédérick Ouellet and Manif d'art

Photo credit: Charles-Frédérick Ouellet and Manif d'art

Photo credit: Charles-Frédérick Ouellet and Manif d'art

Photo credit: Charles-Frédérick Ouellet and Manif d'art

Photo credit: Charles-Frédérick Ouellet and Manif d'art

Photo credit: Charles-Frédérick Ouellet and Manif d'art

Photo credit: Charles-Frédérick Ouellet and Manif d'art

Photo credit: Charles-Frédérick Ouellet and Manif d'art

Photo credit: Charles-Frédérick Ouellet and Manif d'art

Photo credit: Charles-Frédérick Ouellet and Manif d'art