(un)objectively
Curated by Leandro Villaro
Penumbra Foundation, 2020
September 17 - October 15, 2020
Rooted in both photography and sculpture, Rachelle Bussières’s practice revolves around the interaction of mediums, with each work becoming the product of a synergistic approach. Her recent lumen prints* track the subtle but precise movement of assembled objects, light sources, and even the artist’s hand, which becomes a tool for controlling light exposure to the photographic paper. “I seek to generate new ways of seeing, challenge our beliefs of perception, and draw attention to the ways in which light and shadow sculpt new optical space,” Bussières says. “The final works represent a sort of performance in and of themselves—the space between what can be known and what can be seen.”
In Light. Conditions of Time, solo exhibition
Johansson Projects, Oakland
February 7 - March 21, 2020
Johansson Projects is pleased to present its first solo exhibition of work by Rachelle Bussières. In Light. Conditions of Time comprises new works from Bussières’ three-dimensional, photography-based practice. The works move across disciplinary distinctions of form. As a practice of revealing light by using gelatin silver paper under timed exposures, photography is here used to both press itself upon—and delineate from—conventions of image, document, print, textile, and sculpture. In Light. Conditions of Time opens on February 7, 2020 with a reception from 5-8 pm and runs through March 21, 2020. The opening reception is free to the public and the artist will be in attendance.
In Light. Conditions of Time develops an understanding of the limits and possibilities of seeking out, seeing, and knowledge-production. The exhibition provokes the image-reader to negotiate one’s relationship with the “here and now” in lieu of the “far and out” by placing one before phenomena that lighten/darken, kindle/cool, bind/part, and dis/engage before the eye. Bussières describes her practice as “a combination of materials, documents, and transfigurations of assembled sculptural forms that depend on my conditions of time, material access, and state of being. These things are at the core of my formal decisions and central to my practice.” Driven by an alchemical process of allusion, the works appear in varying magnitudes of incandescence; together, the light formations incrementally pulsate, creating a palpable atmospheric field. The images do their work via un/settling shifts—quivers, trembles—that ever so softly nudge one beyond the ocular, toward a place where the psyche and senses meet.
Drawing from her early background in sculpture, photography, and material research, Bussières uses the lumen printmaking process to compose sculptural arrangements that later become photograms. The images are created by using objects such as studio remnants and formal constructions; as the objects are left on paper and exposed beneath lights for minutes, hours, and days, their shadows are impressed onto the surface. Some of the forms appear sliced in geometry, others in soft, simple form, and several come together and shift apart, gently undoing themselves in gradients. Here, light and time hold court as the exhibition’s primary materials. As the eye moves over the cuts and glides across cool/warm spectrums, one is invited to lean into speculative considerations on the processes that make something visible, the visual itself, and the space between the two. Further, by using actual light and light’s refractions as medium, material, and thing in representation, the exhibition’s works surface the facticity of something (dis)appearing. Phenomena of luminescence and time come together in the form of visible matter; and, by shedding conventions of looking and knowing, the image-reader is able to be imbricated in the spectral textures of light’s movement through the atmosphere.
In Light. Conditions of Time makes no claim toward a specific referent, nor does it build a case for meaning. Rather, the exhibition’s works perform as allusions—spectral matter, suspended at once by obscurity and exposure. Further, by articulating themselves in lucent/opaque terms, they point one toward photography’s technical essence. As a practice of seeking out and holding light to create optical illusions, photography’s work moves throughout, placing one directly within the fissures existing between sight and perception.
- Text by Jackie Valle.
At the edge of both, group show
Curated by Serrah Russell and Zack Bent
Seattle Pacific University, Seattle
January 13 - March 6, 2020
At the edge of both, a group exhibition curated by Serrah Russell and Zack Bent, presents four artists that expose the complexity of our perceptions of geography and place. Through the bending of their chosen mediums, these artists appear to turn landscape and space inside out, revealing hidden seams and edges. New forms materialize and we find ourselves floating between the familiar and a newly imagined future.
Rachelle Bussières (Brooklyn, NY) explores the relationship between the physical world, time and perception by examining the transformation and production of space. Using the early photographic process of lumen printing she seeks to “generate new ways of seeing, challenge our beliefs of perception, and draw attention to the ways in which light and shadow sculpt new optical space”. Iván Carmona (Portland, OR) creates clay forms that abstract the landscape of his homeland, Puerto Rico. Carmona’s vibrant ceramic sculptures "draw from the memories he has as a child in a place rich with intense colors, shapes and textures." Taylor Hanigosky (Seattle, WA) makes site-responsive and temporary installations, as she aims to deepen her own perspective of time, labor and energy. “Her practice centers around building an intimate relationship to her materials, making space for intuition in the creative process”. Jarvi Kononen (Detroit, MI) references vernacular landscape photography as point of departure as he inserts cut paper and photographs in a process akin to drawing. His work brings attention to “the intertwined possibilities and limitations of describing a complex and ever-changing landscape.”
Echoes of Bauhaus of Photography Cast Long Shadows, group show
Curated by Hanna Regev
Ruth's Table
February 11 - March 7, 2020 (currently online)
Paying homage to Bauhaus at 100, Echoes of Bauhaus Photography Cast Long Shadows exhibition explores the far-reaching impact of Bauhaus ideas in recent photography and photo-based art. By bringing together all of its forms - prints, projections, and installations - this exhibition explores how Bay Area artists draw on the school’s aesthetic and spirit of unlimited experimentation and continue to push the limits of the medium through the innovative use of technology, novel photographic techniques and interdisciplinary strategies.
Beach Break Miami
Johansson Projects, online exhibition
December 2020
Featuring Alexander Kori Girard + Megan Reed + Blaise Rosenthal + Rachelle Bussières + Hampton Boyer