Pierre-François Ouellette art contemporain is proud to present an ephemeral installation of light and movement by Karilee Fuglem. The artist worked four weeks in the gallery to study the changes in natural light and ambience, and install a series of artworks and objects to reconfigure the source and direction of light in the space. Since the reopening of PFOAC in September 2016 following major design and aesthetic improvements, Fuglem expressed a desire to work in the space to apply her mastery of the almost-invisible. The artist's success in redirecting light, capturing air currents, and filling the skylight with illuminated clouds is an installation not to be missed.
Playing with semi-visible materials for many years now, I’ve become attuned to similar things going on in the world around me, subtle differences in light playing over various surfaces, each surface reflecting light with its own particular luminosity and shadowy counterpart. The least remarkable shuffle of leaf shadows on a wall can stop me in my tracks.
Over the years, I’ve collected many photos and videos of these instances, a growing sketchbook of movement. They assert the value of a kind of detached attention, the way we drift continually between seeing and not seeing, the continual intertwining between states of consciousness.
My ongoing challenge is to try to make evident these moments that seem like nothing, by making parallel situations in present time. Whether or not I’m working in-situ, I live in what I’m making, the better to respond to its changes. Within existing conditions, daylight, ambient air, I play with my palette of receptive materials, looking for configurations that parallel what’s going on in the natural world, things that flutter and twirl, waft and bob about, and are reflective, some brightly, some quietly, depending on the time of day, weather, and how many people are around. These conversations between material and place occupy the same space as you and me, and we feel that shared life. They’re made without any more fanfare than these subtle things I love so much, or at least only enough that I can show you what I see.
I learn by doing, giving in to a messy ongoingness. It’s a slow process, and I never feel I’ve “got it” before it’s time to move on, but this temporariness is also necessary. In a gallery setting, these rare places we can all slow down in, its space and ambience becomes “the thing” — the frame, the surface, the screen, the membrane between.
All that’s needed is time, which is what it takes to see.
- KF
Karilee Fuglem's work takes the form of installations, drawings, photographs and artist books, through which she explores visual subtlety as a key to embodied perception. Raised in Kamloops, British Columbia, she has lived in Montreal since 1989, and frequently travels back and forth between her two "homelands." She has presented solo across Canada, notably at the Darling Foundry (Montreal), the Koffler Gallery (Toronto), Oakville Galleries (Oakville, Ontario), Centre d'art Expression (Ste-Hyacinthe), Two Rivers Gallery (Prince George, BC) and in numerous group exhibitions, including the Biennale de Montréal in 1998 and 2011. Her work can be found in the collections of the Musée d'art contemporain, the Musée national des beaux arts du Québec, the National Gallery of Canada, The Whyte Museum of the Canadian Rockies, Cirque du Soleil, BMO, Bennett Jones LLP among others.
