George Adams Gallery is pleased to exhibit the work of leonardogillesfleur, the collaborative team of artists Leonardo Giacomuzzo and Gilles-Fleur Boutry. The exhibition, titled Double Sense, features a new two-channel video, sculpture and related photography, along with single-channel video works from their ongoing Action series.
For their debut exhibition in New York, leonardogillesfleur has produced a new two-channel video titled Remake of a Remake (2008). With an overt nod to Yves Klein's Leap into the Void, the video pairs two side-by-side scenes recreating the famous illusionistic jump. Two figures - one falling, the other witnessing - appear frozen in a moment, yet not in time. Even as they remain motionless, video masquerading as photography, the passing of time appears in the subtle details of hair blowing or a mouth twitching, blurring the boundaries between the two media. Building on the legend of a photograph documenting a fictional performative event, the work questions the legitimacy of one original moment.
Also on view will be a series of single channel video works from the Action series. Started in 2005, the video works document performances imitating banal activities - eating ice cream, blowing out birthday candles, engaging in a kiss, posing for a snapshot. Again, each image is a frozen moment extending through real time. The ice cream cones melt though the figures maintain their original positions throughout; the birthday candles burn as the figures struggle to maintain looks of surprise and happiness. Simultaneously performance, still photography and moving image, the works comment on the artificiality of the snapshot moment and society's need to make such moments "timeless."
Humor and double entendres run throughout the work. Included in the show is a photographic work and related sculpture literally and metaphorically exploring the idea of sexual encounter as accident. Fucking Accident in Chinatown is a c-print showing two toy taxicabs, one on top of the other, imitating a sexual act. The photograph documents an ambiguous sculptural moment. Is it a found object or an artistic intervention? Similarly, the sculpture, a model for a full-scale project, substitutes two bright red Fiat cars engaged in a similar act.
The exhibition also features a series of three untitled light box sculptures. In each, a photographic image depicts a florescent green extension cord wound around either an arm or a head. Emerging from the light box, the green cord plugs directly into the wall. However, the cord, seen as a continuous object shifting from two to three dimensions has a plug on both ends. Its utility is rendered useless. A visual metaphor for the collaborative process, the impotent cord reflects the clash of idealism and futility often underlying artistic collaborations.
Originally from Argentina and France, leonardogillesfleur received their MFA as a collective from the San Francisco Art Institute in 2004. They have exhibited in solo and group shows in Mexico City, Miami, Paris, Prague and San Francisco. Their work is included in the public collections of 21C Museum, Louisville, KY and the Di Rosa Preserve, Napa, CA.
Checklist
1. Action 3:02, 2005
3:02 minutes
single-channel video/sound
edition of 3, 3 AP
lgfh 04
2. Myself as a Fountain, 2006
18 minutes
single0channel video/sound
edition of 3, 3 AP
lgfh 03
3. Fucking Accident in Chinatown, 2008
c-print mounted on Sintra & acrylic face mounted
edition of 3, 3 AP
lgfh 01
4. Remake of a Remake, 2008
2-channel HD video
edition of 3, 3 AP
lgfh 02
5. Fucking Accident, 2008
model, 1:18 scale
edition of 3, 3 AP
lgfs 01
Front Windows:
Untitled (light box #2, hands), 2007
light box with power cord
20 x 16 inches
edition of 3, 3 AP
lgfs 03
Untitled (light box #3, head), 2007
light box with power cord
20 x 16 inches
edition of 3, 3 AP
lgfs 04
Back Gallery:
Untitled (light box #1, head with hand), 2007
light box with power cord
20 x 16 inches
edition of 3, 3 AP
lgfs 02
