An interview with the artist

By Laura Beeston

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A series 10 years in the making, philosopher and visual artist Antoine Paquin unpacks the ontological meaning of a painting in his latest exhibition, In the Abyss, which runs March 9 to 21 at Galerie Espace. 

 

Nourished by 20th century philosophical queries around identity and perception, a series of purposefully-cut paintings of photography of classic Greek statues is a “game of references,” the artist explains. 

 

“What makes a painting, a painting? And if you make a painting, what makes it art? These paintings are meant to be seen as not only an image but also an object… the illusion is broken.”

 

Technical form and philosophy, plus the significance of depicting destroyed sculptures of supposedly-immortal heroes and gods all work together to move beyond reproduction — resulting in a curious consciousness of representation. 

 

“I don't like to paint subjects just for the sake of painting,” Paquin explains. “I’m pushing the painting a little bit further by showing what the canvas can do, how we can cut it, [and] the material in the arts... playing around with the questions of the mediums and how they relate to each other.” 

 

One aim is to reveal a flip side: a painting’s limits and flaws, how the Greek sculptures ultimately failed. The intentional cuts to Paquin's canvases — a final, precise and “most important” step — further pulls the spectator outside of passive observation and into his philosophy. 

 

“This is a look: I don't want to point at the fact that this is a reproduction of something, point out that this is a canvas, this is paint. This has something to do with every single painting [that exists], realistic, or not. I want to show that all painting, even a realistic painting, is basically materials.”

 

Consciousness of multiple levels — from the aesthetic depicted, to technical execution, to making obvious the object of art, to the material reality — is Paquin’s philosophical spin on the craft he says is meant to challenge audiences to dig a little deeper to access meaning. 

 

He wants people to, on first glance, be drawn to the "good paintings" before asking themselves more conceptual questions, like why it is full of holes.

 

With his scholarly experience and way of thinking, what Paquin finds most important "is to question why [artists are] making art, why [they are] using a specific medium, and how can you reference the medium?" 

 

“[Paintings are] supposed to be the vehicle of some message but if [artists] don't make any reference to why [they’re] choosing this vehicle in particular, it's like blindly taking part of something that [they] don't necessarily understand… I like to understand the reasons behind things.”

 

The layers of interpretation, atop layers of material processes, atop individual titles that provide another clever riddle to the viewers, make for a series that is difficult to explain but essential to witness in all its existential identity, historical reconstruction, mutilation and beauty. 

 

The vernissage for In the Abyss takes place March 11 @ Galerie Espace (4844 Boul. St-Laurent). 

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