Exhibition: Stephen Bulger Gallery - ÉLIANE EXCOFFIER - Series 1996-2011

Exhibition Dates: February 25 - March 24, 2012
Reception for the Artist: Saturday, February 25, 2-5pm

TORONTO, Feb. 15, 2012 /CNW/ - Our second solo show by Éliane Excoffier presents her work to date and the launch of her new catalogue Éliane Excoffier: bilan 1996-2008, co-published by the Musée régional de Rimouski, Galerie Simon Blais and Stephen Bulger Gallery, and featuring an essay by Bernard Lamarche.

Excoffier's work focuses on exploring the dark and physical links that bind the history of photography and its techniques with the representation of the female body. In Rituels (1996), Excoffier's depiction of the body considers the model against which women judge themselves. Often anorexic in form, the ghostly figures blend with their environment as a means of making their disappearance visible.

In Dualité (1997), Excoffier's images are reminiscent of Muybridge's female figure studies and are also a reaction to Lexique de beauté by Claudette de Sèves in 1935, which imparted the rules of female beauty. Excoffier superimposes negatives to create a dual image that illustrates the struggle between women's personal aspirations and society's expectations.  In 1999, Excoffier continued her investigation into the rules of beauty in Petit lexique de beauté. Through the process of overprinting and blurring, Excoffier undermines the appeal of traditional beauty.

Obscures (2004), was influenced by historical erotic photographs and also marked the beginning of Excoffier's experimentation with historical techniques.  Using a pinhole camera, she creates dramatic and crude images of the female body that imply an element of mystery; a fleeting and accidental moment captured for the voyeur's gaze.  In Obscures (série no. 2) (2006), she continues this exploration with a larger format Kodak Camera from 1914 and both film and paper negatives.

Her most recent series, Chambres (et autres histoires photographiques) (2011), gives pride of place to objects and challenges Excoffier by working outside of a studio setting for the first time. All small in size, the works, like those preceding it, evoke narratives tinged with an implicit mystery.

3 pm Screenings:

February 25: The Leopard
March 3: Blow-up
March 10: Zabriskie Point
March 17: Un Chein Andalou & The Double Life of Veronqiue
March 24: The White Ribbon

Stephen Bulger Gallery
1026 Queen Street West Toronto Canada
416.504.0575
[email protected]
www.bulgergallery.com