Everyone is cordially invited to the opening reception of my exhibition, June 24, 4 to 6 p.m. The opening will be followed by a dinner prepared by chef Hubertus Surm.
(Reservations for dinner: 250-539-5177)
The exhibition at the Saturna Café goes to August 2, 2017.
“Narrative is anchored in the passage of time. A story unfolds in the tension between a beginning and an end. Singly and in juxtaposition, these photographs by Andrée Fredette are replete with stories. An image of a seemingly deserted Mayne Queen is paired with a photograph of a ghostly Saturna, producing a tinge of anxiety and uncertainty. Again, an empty path in the forest tells a tale of fear and disquiet. Further, the infinitely small (feathers) and the infinitely vast (the awesome sky) are conjured up. There are no figures in these photographs despite the great variety of subject matter. An irony resides in these works: it is suggested that they evoke the passage of time, yet photography congeals duration. This irony adds a layer of complexity — a dialectical interplay — to our experience of these artworks: we move from duration to time’s suspension and back again. Also, some of these works underline the materiality of the photographic medium, a salutary move in the era of digital media. Meditation portrays an ethereal, almost monochromatic sky — the surface of the photograph is underlined. Also, grains of sand and the grain of the photographic object conjoin in a literal manner. There is a hint of nostalgia in all these works: the backing in aluminum recalls photography’s metallurgic substrate —silver—and the quasi alchemical nature of work in the darkroom, a process which has almost been entirely eclipsed by digital technologies.”
— Jean-François Renaud