Yechel GAGNON

Vide et Plein

For the past several years, I have been using ink as a meditative tool in order to bring me into a particular state before I begin the carving process of the plywood bas-reliefs. As time passed, what was once preparatory works evolved into finished art pieces. The vocabulary of mark making specific to this fluid medium is re-introduced into my practice after numerous years of printmaking, carving, drawing, sculpting and creating installation based works. I have become once again fascinated by the possibilities of the brush, the richness of the ink and its evoquing qualities. Indeed ink is so much more than solely black; it is complete in itself and contains the quality of suggesting every colour. The ink’s black is not one of sorrow, but a concentration of all the colours and tones of our surrounding world concealed in all the gradations between the palest grey to the deepest black.

One could say that this resurgence of ink paintings in my practice naturally follows my exhibition Palimpsest (2004) where some crossover between oriental and occidental pictorial elements was investigated. This interest is further explored in the present exhibition at the Moore Gallery where I am presenting side-by-side, plywood works and inks on paper. The possibilities of establishing a dialogue between these two mediums that are so different yet have at the same time so many similarities is quite appealing to me. Next to the rich and complex wood engravings, stand delicate gestural inks on paper. The contrast between the warm colours of the wood, it’s solidity and it’s physicality, next to the blackness of the ink, the evanescence of it’s fluidity and the fragility of the paper, creates an environment of contemplation specific to the atmosphere I strive for within my exhibitions.

This notion of opposites yet indissociable elements concealed in the theorem Vide et Plein brings the important question of similarities within the two exhibited bodies of work. The theme of layering and stratification which underlines my practice is just as prevalent in both productions. Each medium completely embraces the concept of layering, whether it is by subtraction or addition. Within each medium, when a trace is carved or drawn, it cannot be taken back, it cannot be erased; it is absorbed within the paper or engraved into the wood. Therefore, the gestural mark making of the ink echoes the traces inscribed in the plywood; the immediacy of the ink echoes the speed of the router where in both cases the mark making scars the surface of its support. Subsequently, both techniques express a large spectrum of possibilities within a limited palette, bringing the attention to nuances and values, calling the viewer’s willingness to see and imagine in its own way what is mostly suggested.

Considering the parallels and polarities existing in these two new bodies of work, Vide et Plein is indeed a prompt title on many different levels. Besides the notion of duality, the title of the exhibition refers to an important book on Chinese pictorial language written by François Cheng. This beautiful book served not as a didactic tool, but as an inspiring one to focus on the concept of microcosm specific to Chinese painting. Indeed each painting of the great Chinese tradition strives for the representation of the equilibrium between confronting forces ruling our universe. Obviously, absence can not exist without presence, but the essence of their emptiness is that it is not passive but rather active. It is within emptiness that transformation takes place, that elements influence one another and that every matter evolves.

Yechel Gagnon
Sweden, August 2005