bénédicte reverchon exhibition through the eyes of a dragonfly

It was behind a curtain of rain that one day I had the chance to meet Bénédicte; precious thing, we have become good friends. Every time in her work, I find this first vision: a face enlightened by a big smile veiled by the dripping rain.

To show and to conceal...this hidden and intimate part of life that we assume without seeing, Bénédicte offers us interpretations, ceaselessly moving and touching.

The photographic alchemy and ceramics of Bénédicte Reverchon, offers a conveyance of the mind towards a virtual world past or future.

For this new exposition at the ‘Vrais Reves’ Gallery, her choice of a Canadian estate, abandoned and run-down, in the town of Val Jalbert showcases the affirmation, as does Bachelard, that the house is more than a construction: it is a force of daydream, of fantasy. Bénédicte presents the “shape” as a provisional state that defies both
time and space.

Yes, life is captured through the lens of Bénédicte with her natural light. Yes, the ceramicist manipulates vividly with the scalpel the image, so enigmatic, of a past unknown.

As a living cell transforms its structure to better adapt to its environment, the house seems to be in constant reorganization: breaking, obliterating, vibrating.

Meticulous quest, systematic process, the artist dominates the technique of the stroke but allows the haphazard open the limits of perception. The act of barring, blending, scratching becomes the source of a metamorphosis. From this ensemble of discontinued strokes comes accidents, visual fractures. This brings about subliminal appearances on occasion unsettling, since the estate was once occupied.

In the drawings, the lines, such as magnetic filings, organize the outlines of a structure heading towards disappearance into that of a ruin, at once solid and faded. Like the strings of a universe unknown, the lines underlie a ghostly silhouette and emit a possible future.

Always searching, Bénédicte forces the photons to slow down, clarity asserts itself, and yet the migration of the images takes place where they literally thrust themselves into one another while falling to pieces. Movement is all around. The distance and new angle of light disrupt the image: the material disappears, the energy and color surface and radiate; faced with all this freedom, the dragonfly relishes in the moment.

Evelyne Riviere, October 16th, 2013