Lena Amuat & Zoë Meyer
The Eye Sees, Arles - July 2022
‘PAINT ME A FUTURE’
Exhibition Co-Curated by Lena Amuat, Zoë Meyer & Diana Poole.
Exhibition text, by Diana Poole.
Through the summer heat and winding streets, ‘Les Rencontres d’Arles’ reveals layers of history at every turn, a maze of exhibitions and happenings transports visitors across time and place. New artistic interventions unfurl alongside Romanesque monuments, contemporary photography is set against crumbling yet proud antique structures. These encounters of past and present, which speak to the festival’s very existence in Arles, are inherent to Swiss artist-duo Lena Amuat & Zoë Meyer’s practice. Against this congruent backdrop, ‘Paint me a future’ presents their ongoing series ‘Mathematical Objects’ (2009-2022).
Akin to archaeologists, the artists dive into past eras to unearth objects from rare scientific archives and long-forgotten university collections. Devoid of context, Amuat & Meyer photograph their discoveries with traditional analogue 35mm film. Removing all reference to their origins and function, the objects become a glorious mise-en-scène: seductively lit and shot against vibrant backdrops. Contained in technicolour isolation, these bold forms feel exotic and strange. The artworks are imbued with aura, which for Amuat & Meyer means an almost ritualistic approach to seeking out and giving new life to these neglected pieces: it ‘emanates in their images through the mysteries each object embodies and the glamour they project’ ¹.
The artists then transport us ‘back to the future’ by creating illusions and disrupting certain images through digital manipulation, disorientating and prompting us to question the pictorial reality. In one such work, ‘On Disappearing’ (2017), a mathematical object reminiscent of antiquities found in Arles stands in a grid room. The series shows the background progressively obscuring the object in the foreground, dissolving it until only a shadow reminds us of its presence.
“[…] In the sheer gorgeousness with which thesedug-out and dusted-down teaching models have been represented, the artworks play among the ruins of vanishing eras.”
_ ‘THE AURAS OF ERAS’, GAIR BURTON
‘Pupillenmodelle’ (2011) were tools used in biology classes to demonstrate the adaptation of pupils to light reflection. Exhibited on either side of a doorway against vivid blue walls, chosen by the artists because “… the luminous colour pigments have a strong pull on the viewer and influence perception”, the two artworks appear as eyes framing the view. Walking on, the arched opening reveals a flash of white wall, where a long line of ‘Mathematical Objects’ is displayed – inviting us to contemplate what exactly ‘The Eye Sees’, what is real and what is perceived. Indeed, ‘Mathematical Objects’ depict abstract concepts, conveying how aesthetics and materiality can influence the transmission of knowledge, even creating new knowledge.
‘Paint me a Future’ (2021), the one work not part of the ‘Mathematical Objects’ series, can be seen as a homage to Arles itself. The column, a direct reference to the historical heritage and Roman remains; the brush, a nod to the tradition of painting and the black paint, itself made of paper, are materials from which images and visions of the future can be conceived. In Arles, as in the artwork, time and meaning overlap in the present – offering a starting point to create and construct anew.
_ Diana Poole, Zürich, 2022
¹ ‘The auras of eras’, Gair Burton, extract from ‘Lena Amuat & Zoë Meyer: Artefakte und Modelle’: About Books, 2021
