blog.christophecanato.com

RAGAMUFFINS - The opening at PCP by Robert Cook, Associate curator of Contemporary Art, Art Gallery of Western Australia - Extract

2010-02-18T15:47:00.000-08:00

"... First, because they surround us, Christophe’s Ragamuffins. As catalogue-essayist Claire Krouzecky notes, these couches, lounges and Lazee Boys and Girls are not (as I had initially assumed) constructed images, but instead are actually found in the wild…and then, as Flavia pointed out to me, rather artfully lit, so that they look staged. In working in this way, these shots that are the result of Christophe entering David Attenborough-mode, locating them in their unique habitats, are also a way of foregrounding that act. Accordingly, the work conveys an implicit adventure in the act of scouting, locating, and then presentation. It is not a stumbling across, and the management of an aesthetic from that, but the production of a theatre of urban decay.

Of course, this process sits both neatly and oddly in relation to its motif. After all, the lounges are strangely organic and monstrous, truly abject. Indeed, they don’t just sit outside the flats, houses, fences and houses-to-be, but glom there. They ooze like a sweating summer house guest cheaply dressed in tight synthetic polymer blend who you just can’t get rid of. They’re like furniture as Homer Simpson, degraded and degrading. And maybe, too, they’re like cockroaches, the kinds of beings which, when everything else goes up in nuclear dust, will remain, squishy and shabby sure, but the only true reminder of the species that we once were. Different species scientists will examine them, making casts of the indents in order to form what they think are realistic replicas of the people we once were.

They have this seeming strength because the oily imprint of sloth has given them more super than human powers and this is because they sucked our life and our lives into them. I mean, who really knows how many bodies have been sucked into their spring and foam depths? It is for this reason that we possibly find them confronting. They are waiting for us – as cushioned Venus fly traps, sprung bogs, stitched quicksand fugs.

And, weirdly, against this, the houses, the flats and the like, feel positively life-affirming. These structures of dwelling have a set of rituals around which people flow and that the sofa sits opposed to as a septic and sarcastic critic. So, now, in Christophe’s works, and isolated from the other interior furniture we can see the couch for what it really is, a sign of relaxation gone bad, gone sad, gone toxic. A sign of a grunge past that has not gone away, that follows us and lies in wait to bring us down. We can see that, though technically supportive, there is nothing uplifting about them at all.

Yet all of this is entirely conjecture. Maybe I’ve got it wrong. The couch could be a sad, misunderstood outcast, for whom, in a world of action, it cannot keep up. It has no place in our go-gettum, power-grabbing lives. So in this way, Christophe’s lovingly monikered ragamuffins speak to fears of complacent living, about our desire to transcend this by distancing ourselves from those who fail to act toward becoming couch-less men and women of substance, while simultaneously (and perversely) positing that ‘no-action’ will win out in the end. Weirdly, therefore, Christophe’s show gets at a cluster of feelings and associations about how we live and how and who we scapegoat, and the fear and the pleasure of all of that..."

Robert Cook

RAGAMUFFINS. Perth Centre for Photography, 18 February - 14 March

2010-02-09T16:28:00.001-08:00

Perth is the most isolated metropolis in the world. In the current context of globalisation, this Western Australian capital bears resemblance to our European Materialist societies. This urban environment has inspired the photographer, Christophe Canato, to create a series of photographs entitled ‘Ragamuffins’.

Consumption, possession, ownership, affection, abandonment, globalisation, migration, nomadism, mobility, homelessness and solitude are but a few of the notions explored in Christophe’s body of work.

Ragamuffins is a photographic series of abandoned couches and armchairs throughout the streets of Perth and its surrounding suburbs. This census of objects of near human resemblance is based on the communal theme which focuses on consumer habits and human behaviours in our materialistic society.

From the frills of a flowery patterned grandmother chair to the cracks in a red-leather couch or the missing spring of a bargain recliner, the members of our community have left their mark on Christophe Canato’s photographs. These photographs also carry the stigma of our social classes, from the lowest to the highest, the industrious to the indolent, the blossoming to the withering…

If one can easily conjure a classification, then one can also picture the life of the furniture’s past owners and the manner in which they have adapted to their social surroundings. From the most luxurious to the most miserable, one can raise the question as to how many of these couches will find a second life and therefore some comfort into the makeshift housing of those disowned by society.

Through the warm colours of the artificially lit city, Christophe Canato’s nocturnal shots give the inanimate objects a soul. The context is cosy, intimate and warm hearted, nevertheless the ideas of isolation, solitude and abandonment still maintain their significance. These photographs encourage the viewer to focus on the object and its immediate environment: a street, a building…

With a feeling of déjà-vu, Christophe Canato’s images create an amalgamation between the idea of indoor and outdoor, comfort and discomfort, portraiture and still-life.

Hunting Trophies Vol.1

2009-04-28T03:37:00.000-07:00

HUNTING TROPHIES VOL 1
Cristophe Canato’s Insect Bounty
Fremantle Arts Centre from Tuesday, April 7, til Sunday, May 24.

Confronted with the title Hunting Trophies Vol 1, one calls to mind any number of grand-scale stuffed moose-head plaques and bearskin floor rugs decorating the warmly lit salon of a seasoned North American big game hunter. What one doesn’t expect is a series of close-up insect photographs in the light-filled corridors of the Fremantle Arts Centre.
However the title Hunting Trophies, artist Christophe Canato insists, is integral to the work. “There are lots of symbols inside the title. We can imagine these huge things on the wall. It definitely has that idea of something we want to catch and kill and have control over and exhibit as something we’re proud to have killed, but also as something which is beautiful enough to be presentable and exhibited on our wall.”
With insects as his trophies French photographer Canato pushes the conventions, questioning which species do or do not qualify as worthy of ‘hunting’, as well as drawing on the very direct and visceral response human beings have to insects in general.
“These hunting trophies are a little special because they are not the hunting trophies we can see on the wall normally. The photographs are about a fascination with these kinds of species, insects in this case, which are normally something that can be very repulsive for humans but also very fascinating and attractive.”
Having studied art in France at Beaux-Arts, Grenoble, Canato’s interest in contemporary art has since taken a backseat, while he pursued a career in the fashion industry. Working as a commercial, contemporary dance and fashion photographer for many years, he has been able to develop his technical skills, and gain a greater understanding into the nature of the medium. But his passion for contemporary art is unwavering, and this exhibition merges both his artistic and technical capacities.
The insects are photographed in the palm of a human hand, and appear to levitate mysteriously. This flesh background, coupled with the insects’ apparent floating adds to the photographs’ complexity. The warm light given by human flesh removes the photographs from a biological context, making for a somewhat more comfortable confrontation for the viewer.
Yet the juxtaposition of the human with the insect highlights the vulnerability of the subjects, but also heightens the sense of discomfort and repulsion at the thought of these alien creatures in direct contact with the hand. It draws attention to the contradiction between what is alive and dead, which is further confounded by the ‘levitation’ of the insects, which imbues a sense of life in them, despite the title suggesting they are dead, objectified now as trophies.
Heightening this complexity even more is the fact that Canato stresses he doesn’t kill any of the insects, but collects them already dead, and that the title Hunting Trophies means less to him about hunting, but more about “relating to the collecting, the actual act of going out and finding the insects.
“The idea is not to be comfortable, the idea is to have all these ideas – attraction, repulsion, fear, control, fascination.
“So it’s a personal approach but it’s also very general. All of my work I try of course to involve some personal sentiment, but I think it’s definitely, with all my work, a story for everyone. It can be everybody’s story at the same time.”

CLAIRE KROUZECKY
X-PRESS Magazine, 23.04.09, issue n°1158

Hunting Trophies Vol.1 / Media Release Fremantle Art Centre

2009-04-28T01:56:00.000-07:00

Hunting Trophies Vol.1 / WHAT'S ON (Fremantle Art Centre: April-June 09)

2009-04-27T01:41:00.000-07:00

Hunting Trophies Vol.1/X-Press magazine, 09-04-09, issue n°1156

2009-04-27T01:29:00.000-07:00

Un Dimanche en Famille / FOTOFREO fringe 2008, 4 April-4 May / Alliance Française of Perth

2008-04-04T02:03:00.000-07:00

Which childhood memories do we remember? Which of these relate specifically to our Sundays spent with family?

Some will remember the pleasures, the sharing, the tenderness of exchanges, and the joy of peaceful and educational Sundays.
The day where the whole family is finally available and reunited. A child’s happiness linked to the love he receives.
Others remember these Sundays as family obligations. Dull days that never end, the heavy atmosphere, being bound by rules, and having to tolerate participating in activities imposed by the family unit. “Go and get some fresh air, it will do you good”…, “It’s been two weeks since we saw your uncle and aunt”.
Christophe Canato’s work, “A family Sunday”, reveals to us the perception of emotions and recollections procured by these family reunions.
These active sensations occur more or less in episodes. “A family Sunday. Episode 1” is a trio of images. A country landscape immersed in cold colours. The trees and the odd person are seen as black silhouettes. This glacial landscape hovers between beauty, unease and serenity.

About Christophe Canato

Since the first works in 1985, on the body, its skin, and its movement in space, it was in 1990 that Christophe Canato began photography through contemporary dance with Jean-Claude Gallotta.
This new medium becomes essential in his research. These image combinations and their associations give birth to a series of diptychs such as, "de l'image aux sens" (from the image to the senses), "trajectoire" (trajectory), “je n'ai pas dit mon dernier mot" (I have not said my last word), but equally through the more personal works such as “no man’s land”, “pièces à conviction" (incriminating evidences)…

Un Dimanche en Famille / proposal for FOTOFREO 2008,

2008-03-04T09:33:00.000-08:00

"CRIE!" (SCREAM!) / Perth Town Hall, 13-19 June 2007

2007-06-13T03:04:00.000-07:00

" CRIE !" (Scream!) portraits

Screaming action allows us to show happiness, pain, terror or anger feeling.
It’s a violent expression, taking place in our innermost selves, finally coming to our throat to broadcast a (and expressed in the) fullness of sound.
The scream takes place through the extricated sound, also in the distortion of the face. The distorted face becomes unrecognisable.
Both combinations (Sound/ distortion), can determine the nature of the sound expression. Some screams are closed and others are open. Some are painful some are beneficial.
These transformations start in the breathing time and fade with the lung, emptied of air.
The photograph takes an important role in the temporal space. It materialises the mutation to constitute a laboratory observation. More than traditional portraits, these images give us the occasion to observe and scrutinize the body differently.
The different facial expressions invite us to imagine the nature of associated sounds.
In our formal society, it is difficult sometimes to let your body express sentiments.
Screaming can be necessary sometimes. What a perfect opportunity, when the train passes, to scream.
I asked people to catch this moment for them and for my camera.
“crie!” is a black & white portrait series started in 2001.

Christophe canato

"CRIE!" (scream!) / Perth Town Hall, panoramic view

2007-06-13T03:03:00.000-07:00

"CRIE!" (scream!) / Proposal exhibition / Perth Station

2007-06-12T09:37:00.000-07:00

CORPUS EMULSION / ARTRAGE Festival Oct.27 - Nov.5 2006

2006-12-19T02:07:00.000-08:00

Corpus Emulsion is an extract of twelve years photographic research, showing for the very first time. A global dance portraits featuring some of the world’s leading companies as seen through the lens of a visionary photographer, Christophe Canato.
Scarrily beautiful.
Experience Christophe Canato’s unique vision of contemporary dance practice at the close of the millennium in these dynamic subtly poignant works.
This body of work represents over a decade of commitment to photographic exploration of the body, its wrap, its tensions and the diversity of emotion these are capable of portraying.

Subjects include: Angelin Prejlocaj, Bernardot Montet, Carolyne Carlson, Catherine Berbessou, Claude Brumachon, Jan Fabre, Pina Bausch, Sankai Juku, Rui Horta, Susanne linke, Jean-Claude Gallotta, Merce Cunningham, Odile Duboc.

Dynamically evocative and subtly poignant, the exhibition of these works is not to be missed.

CORPUS EMULSION / Western Suburbs Weekly, December 12-18 2006

2006-12-18T02:30:00.000-08:00

CORPUS EMULSION / Guardian Express October 24-30 2006

2006-10-24T02:51:00.000-07:00

"pièces à conviction" (evidences) / FOTOFREO fringe 2006

2006-01-15T02:57:00.000-08:00

What is the importance we give to the objects and what are the reasons?

“evidences” is a photographic inventory of my own object, their provenance, their sentimental value and sometime their description location in the living place.

“When they propose me to carry out an exhibition in this flat, I find the idea attractive but I couldn’t adapt myself to the place. I find it austere, It wasn’t on my own image.
I will imagine myself to be in these walls and immediately I link with my references objects, my world, a window open in the outside.”

"pièces à conviction" (evidences) / gallery 2pièces cuisine 1999, France - LVMH 2001 France, - FOTOFREO Fringe 2006, Perth

2006-01-15T02:05:00.000-08:00

VINCENT AWARD 2005

2005-09-30T02:23:00.000-07:00

VINCENT AWARD 2005/ INSITE scoop publishing, summer05/06

2005-09-30T01:37:00.000-07:00

VINCENT AWARD 2005/ the Perth VOICE n°378

2005-09-30T01:30:00.000-07:00

"TRAJECTOIRE" (trajectory) 1998

1998-06-02T09:48:00.000-07:00

"NO MAN'S LAND" autoportrait / La SACEM Private Art Collection

1998-05-02T09:41:00.000-07:00

"From the earliest years of my youth I had had the notion that every person has his own no man’s land, a domain that is his and his alone. The life everyone sees is one thing; the other belongs to the individual, and it is none of anyone else’s business. By that in no way do I mean to imply that, from an ethical standpoint, one is moral and the other one amoral, or, from that of the police, one licit and the other illicite. But man lives at intervals unchecked, in freedom and in private, alone or with someone, be it for an hour a day, an evening a week, or a day a month; he lives for that private, free life of his from one evening (or day) to the next: those hours exist in a continuum.
Those hours either complement something in his visible life or else possess some independent significance. They may be a joy or a necessity, or habit, but they are crucial to demarcating any sort of “general line”. If a man does not exercise this right of his, or if because of extenuating circumstances this right is denied him, he will one day wake up to find that he has never really found himself, and there is something depressing in that. I feel sorry for people who are alone only in the bathroom, never anywhere else.
An inquisition or a totalitarian state, incidentally, can never allow this second life, which eludes any and every control. It is no accident that they arrange people’s lives in such a way that the only solitude permitted is that of the bathroom. Barracks and prisons often lack even that.
In this no man’s land, when a man lives in freedom and private, strange things can happen: kindred souls can each other; a book can be read and understood especially keenly, music heard in some special way. In the quiet and solitude a thought might occur that changes a man’s life, ruins or saves him. Perhaps in this no man’s land people cry, or drink, or think about something no one else knows, or they examine their bare feet, or thy try to find a new place for parting on their balding head, or they leaf through a picture magazine of half-naked beauties and muscle-men – I don’t know, and I don’t want to know. In childhood and even in adolescence (and in old age as well) we don’t always feel the need for that other life. Nonetheless, it’s wrong to think of that other life, that no man’s land as a luxury, and everything else as normal. That’s not where the diving line falls. It falls along the line of absolute privacy and absolute freedom."

Extract : "the revolt", Nina Berberova- Act Sud Edition

"de l'image aux sens" SYNESTHÉSIE (synaesthesia) 1997 / winner prize JEUNE CRÉATION 1997, Paris / second prize BUSINESS & DECISION 2000, Paris.

1997-05-02T09:51:00.000-07:00