installation – Marion Landry

August 17, 2022September 5, 2022

9 Elements| Summer research project 2022 | Documentation

9 Elements (Towards the light)
175 x 275cm, acrylic on canvas
Condition: Summer sunlight August 3-7, 2022

This project was initially envisioned as a conversation between a painting and the winter sun. From January to February, the sun sits low in the horizon (about 23 degrees) allowing for its rays to penetrate deep into the ECU campus. With a skylight located slightly south of the Knee Gallery, the wall becomes an obstacle to light capturing an interesting pattern – only for a few hours – on its outer wall. Having a lot to do with being there at the right time, these moments can only be noticed by a few that venture on the campus interested in observing light phenomena. Let’s not forget that light can be a rare thing in the winter months of the Pacific Northwest. On these rare occasions when light peaks through the dark clouds and shines, to me it feels majestic making me aware of time and space. My vision was to create a painting that could act as a container and perhaps capture this phenomena making it more visible.

This project was first conceptualized as a wall painting in February 2022. It was proposed as a painting project for my summer thesis research. This project will be completed when installed on the Outer Knee Gallery wall between January-February as well as documented into the similar lighting conditions that it was first envisioned in.

The research aspect of this project is an ongoing conversation and continues to question, amongst other things, it’s viability as a painting under different lighting conditions. For this reason, It will be exhibited in the upcoming State of Practice Exhibition scheduled for September 2022 in the sculpture gallery section of the the Michael O’Brian Exhibition Commons at ECU.

9 Elements in conversation with summer sun

Watch this video to see the full passage of August Sun onto 9 Elements.

9 Elements – view from East side hallway

General observation and comments
I installed 9 Elements for 4 days on the Outer Knee Gallery wall from August 3rd to 7th, 2022. This allowed me to sit with the piece, document it and received critique from invited guests. Neil Wedman, Jack Jeffrey, Gwenyth Chao and Molly Burke came by and discussed the work in presence with me. Landon Mackenzie and Damian Moppett discussed the work virtually with me while reviewing digital documentation. The comments below where generated from these conversations.

Important to note that the Outer Knee Gallery wall is a transient space used as a corridor. It is about 6 feet wide. It opens up to an skylight atrium that runs through the 3 levels below which is framed by a glass railing. This gallery space is challenging as It offers limited viewing space in front of the work and forces the viewer into narrow corridors to view the piece. As a result of this viewing conditions, the comments have pointed to note that the painting offers 3 distinct readings: at close, mid and far range.

Close range – about 2 feet from the piece:
This is the range that painters or those looking for technical information about the painting are attracted too. When standing close to the piece, one feels completely immersed in the yellowness of the work. The piece covers your entire field of vision making it at times difficult to keep your balance as you feel absorbed by a vaporous field of colour. It is hard to keep your eyes focused on the very details you came to seek. The matte finish offers no reflection of light or the viewer and tend to pull you in even further. The coloured pencil line used as a guide to paint each colour band is the thing that is most visible at close range. Once you are able to focus on the line, you also start noticing the loose brush marks of the thinly painted fields. Imperfection and unevenness in the application of paint is observed and suddenly one realized that this piece was painted fairly loose. You don’t tend to stay within this range for too long as it somewhat feels uncomfortable and hard to focus on anything.

Mid range – 3-5 feet from the piece:
Most common range that viewer will stand from the work. This is an awkward position as the area in front of the work is a corridor broken by an opening in the floor surrounded by railing so the viewer only has limited options to stand in front of the piece which is standing on the right side of the work. Once you find the most convenient place to pause and really observed, a strong optic illusion occurs. Each band of colour appeared to have been painted on a vertical gradient from purple to yellow. This effect is so strong that one is convinced that it was painted that way and need to move closer again to verified this fact. And one can kind of proved it’s point by noticing that in some areas, the edges of the painted band appeared to be painted differently but upon closer observation, one will noticed that no, the unevenness of the paint is actually throughout the entire band and not just present on the edges as per the optic illusion. Moving back to a 3-5 feet range, the optic illusion starts again creating a wave with the painted band. This is so strong and hard to understand leaving the viewer puzzled with the effect. At that range, the paintings appears yellow and purple and vibrates quite a bit.

Far range – 15-20 feet from the piece:
Not a lot of people took the time to walk all the way around the floor opening to stand directly across the painting. At this range, the 9 coloured bands completely disappeared becoming one unified gradient from pale yellow to a more saturated yellow. What stands now is the painting within its context. The architecture of the space, the skylight, the corridor, the railing and mostly how the light interact with all these details. At that range, the window behind the painting on the north wall of the Knee Gallery comes into the conversation. Architecturally speaking, it is divided into vertical window panes which recall the geometrical composition of the painting, but most importantly it is overlooking the mountain range and reads has bluish purple, the complementary colour of yellow. One starts wondering if the effect of the blue next to the yellow painting is actually altering the perception of it or contributing to the optic illusion that happens at mid range. Nevertheless, at this range, the painting completely feel like it belong to the wall and its presence enhance the awareness of space.

Unresolved ideas:
The context: This is a very difficult area to view a painting that size. The wall opens to a transient corridor for those moving along the North hallways, into the Print Studio or Elbow gallery or transitioning to the south hallways. It is not a space where one can sit and really spend the time with the painting. It makes it a really hard space to see the painting in it’s entirety without being partially block by the railing. It’s also a bit awkward to find a place to stand still has others will walk by you at all time, on their way to their business. In fact, I am not sure if most people actually notice the painting as it is so subdued and tends to melt with the context. In my opinion, It does soften the area and bringing a sense of calm. On the south side of the Elbow Gallery, there is a lounge area and I have taken the time to rearrange the orientation of the loungers to offer a more welcoming configuration where students are invited to gather. Two of the loungers are also offering a great view towards the painting but once sitting, the railing really constraint the viewing of the piece. Me and Gwenyth spend a considerable amount of time there talking about the work from those loungers and many ideas where discussed. We discuss the calmness of the piece, the context it was sitting it, the transient space, the railing but one thing that resurfaced was how the piece could provide a space to empty all content: our oversaturated world of images, news, social media, emails and general sense of lacking time. This piece is suggesting the opposite: a contemplative moment to observed time pass by, the transition of sun over a certain lapse of time, awareness of context and possibly of self.

The dependance of sunlight:

Have I gone too minimal?

The relationship to modernist abstraction, what makes this piece still relevant?

April 14, 2022April 14, 2022

Spring 2022 | -32 (Diamond Dust) | Final Critique + notes

Diamonds for Winter Sun, a site conditional installation for room B4130
-32 (Diamond Dust)
oil on canvas, 140 x 120cm
–32 (Diamond Dust) March 31st, 2022, 1pm to 5pm
1m22sec video

Emily Carr University of Art + Design
April 8th, 2022

This site conditional installation included both a painting and a video. The painting was created specifically for that room. It was meant to be installed on the West facing wall that received natural light and would therefore change the perception of the painting as well as frame it in different ways.

The painting was installed on March 24th, 2022 and documented over a period of time under different lighting conditions. Sunny, overcast, partly cloudy and so forth. The documentation process was helping me to positioned the painting within the sunny area of the West facing wall in room B4130. The challenge was that winter solstices had just come to an end and the inclination of the earth was changing quite fast reducing the sun penetration in the room. I moved the painting 3 times and by the time the critique was on, the sun no longer aligned with the painting as per the initial vision for it.

VIDEOS

This is a playlist that includes many videos. The first video titled -32 (Diamond Dust) March 31, 2022 is the one I presented as part of the installation for the final critique.

Documentation – March 24th, 2022, sunny day.

On that date, the painting aligned perfectly to the vision I had for it.

Documentation – March 29th, 2022, overcast day with sunny periods

Already 5 days later you can see that the shadow is now touching the top left corner of the painting where on the 25 there was a space of about 2 inches.

Documentation – March 31st – in the shadow of a sunny day

This is the day I did the best video documentation. It was super sunny. These picture where taken before the sun hit the wall and it was super purple at an angle and turquoise when looking at it from the front. .

Documentation – April 1st, 2022, overcast, raining and low light.

Documentation – April 5th, 2022, sunny.

By April 5th, the shadow is totally overlapping on top of the painting. Well.. this was intended for the winter sun and we are now in spring!

Critique Day– April 8th, 2022, overcast with bright moments. No documentation.

Documentation – April 12th, 2022, sunny day

February 14, 2022March 23, 2022

Spring 2022 | Conditional Painting proposal

Site Specific / Conditional Painting
by Marion Landry

Site Specific / Conditional Painting

Site: South Facing wall of the Outside Knee Gallery, 4^th floor. (Refer to images for wall location)

Painting action: Divide the wall into 9 vertical equal bands. Using each band, create a gradient of colour transitioning from primrose yellow to white. Use acrylic/wall paint. Leave brush stroke apparent.

Condition: Sunny day, February 2022, between noon to 1pm

Project description:

A colour gradient will be painted directly on the South facing wall of the Outside Knee Gallery using commercial paints. The choice of commercial paint is to facilitate erasure of the project once completed. The vision is for the painting to be witnessed on sunny days from noon to 1pm. During that time, the natural light enters the building through the skylight and animate the wall with a moving light pattern. The light pattern takes approximately 1 hours to transition through the entire wall. The artist will document the passing of light on her painting using a camera and a tripod installed along the corridor. During the documentation process the artist will be mindful as to create minimum impact to the common area. The piece should remain installed on the wall for a duration of 30 consecutive days. This is to ensure that the weather provides a few sunny days during the month to allow for proper documentation. The artist intends to invite the MFA cohort, professors and advisor who will be critiquing the artwork. This site specific/conditional painting is part of the artist research process which will later inform her thesis.

Image reference

Location: 4^th floor, South facing wall of the Outside Knee Gallery

Site Specific/Conditional Painting mock-up

9 bands of commercial paint colour from primrose yellow to white. (Whiteout light effect)

9 bands of commercial paint colour from primrose yellow to white. (With light effect)

APPROVAL STATUS: DECLINED – due to time constraint. The project is delayed to summer or January 2023.

February 14, 2022March 8, 2022

Spring 2022 | WHITE ELEMENT | Atmospheric research

First critique of spring semester 2022

KEYWORDS: Winter, monochrome, warm white and winter blues, light reflecting on snow, warm sun reflecting on ice, cold warm, blue and white, yellow whites, winter whites, néant, openness, wide, beyond perception, absence, wideness, optical phenomena.

Research

Cool vs warm light
Finding ways to capture and reflect the light from different context
Atmospheric ambiance
Meditative space/object
4th dimension: Light animating object

Learning from previous research

Light vs Atmosphere
Building on my first light installation back in September 2021, I want to explore further with the combination of cool and warm lights. The first light installation used a sets of LED lights positioned on the floor. The shadow created from this light source became quite dramatic and theatrical. Although I like the visual atmosphere it created, I want to achieve something less dramatic for this new installation. Building on this previous experience, I want to make the lighting invisible to the viewer and instead focus on the atmospheric result and the impact this type of lighting has on the space and the artwork.

Materials
Matte and reflective oil paints will be used in order to reflect or absorb the light. The goal here is to allow for the artwork to render the light visible. The painting is a redo of Blue Element #9 from my previous installation. This time, the large scale will become almost like a portal, a size big enough for one to enter. 72″ x 58″

Reference images

Inspiration story.
Magog, January 22nd 2022. My grand mother is turning 100 today and I am here to celebrate her. We are in covid times and the province of Quebec has the most severe covid restriction of all provinces. It is impossible to see anyone, to gather, or to celebrate. All restaurants are closed and nothing is happening. My grandmother tested negative this morning, so did I and she is granted permission to have one visitor a day. And today I’m it. My emotions are raw and contradict each other . I am sad and I want to celebrate. I feel empowered and powerless. I want to scream and talk softly at the same time. Fortunately I woke up to sunshine this morning which calms me and reminds me that I only have now and that I better enjoy this moment. I need to go for a walk and bask in the sun.

I step outside and it hits me. It’s -32. The nostrils of my nose are stuck together and breathing hurts. The sun is shining and reflecting on the snow so strongly that I can barely see and now my eyes are watering and that is never a good thing when it’s that cold. I venture a bit further and decide to walk towards the waterfront. I know from previous visits that they turn the pathway into an ice path in the winter and I want to see it. However by the time I get to the waterfront I am so cold that the only thing I am looking for is shelter. Fortunately, there is an outdoor fireplace. As I am warming my hands and body, I can relax a bit and start to appreciate my surroundings. The immensity of a snow covered landscape hits me. The lake is frozen rendering it larger than usual. Everything is so bright, cool looking and cold that it feels like the time has stopped. It is calm, peaceful, serene but it feels unnatural for a place that is normally full of people. The ice path is empty, I guess it’s covid, there are no tourists around and the locals are founding it too cold for skating. In fact, there is barely anyone which is the perfect situation for me. I like the feeling of witnessing something that no one else is seeing. I get completely disconnected from my moment cause I’m freezing. That fireplace is not enough to really warm things up. I am starting to wonder how I will make it back home in this cold and my notion of distance is totally askew by my fear of freezing. So I fight the fear and walk extremely fast back to my condo and my own fireplace which I stoke generously upon entering.

3:00pm or 15:00h in Quebec. My eyes rise from the computer and I get this impulse of being outside again. The sun is still shining and I see diamond dust from the window. Diamond dust is a type of precipitation composed of ice crystals which often seem to float in the air. (More on that later as I am creating another painting from that memory) The sun is starting to fall on the horizon and the snow quality appears completely different. It appears warm and more creamy than earlier. It must be warmer. Don’t fool yourself, my phone confirms that it’s still -28. Knowing about the outdoor fireplaces now, I make it my goal. This time the feeling is totally different. The snow is so warm looking that I am feeling somewhat warmer. Nothing has really changed and yet, I feel embraced by the warmth of the sun in a different way. I also see and understand the snow differently. The sun is leaning towards a warm yellow almost pinkish colour and as a result the snow feels and look completely different. More welcoming, more relax, more positive. The snow which had a blueish coolness earlier is now cream, yellow, pink and orange at the same time. Why I’m I seeing it that way? My shadow is a cool mauve which helps me see the yellowness of the snow, or does it make is appeared more yellow because of it’s contrast. Albers theory of colours sparked in my mind. I document. I take photos, I am trying to capture this effect, this moment, this emotion and the feeling I get. I am trying to understand logically what is happening and yet it doesn’t explain my feeling. The emotion is not capture in the photo but the contrast of warm and cool is apparent. I need to paint and I know exactly which pigment to use to reproduce this buttery effect. Few years ago, I found a tube of Michael Harding lead white replacement that has exactly the quality of that snow. Warm, buttery, welcoming and satisfying. I need to materialize this emotion, this contradiction, this relationship between cool and warm. I am obsessed. How can I render something visible that is not. It only lives in me. This contradiction.

Painting Process