geneviève rocher (montreal)

HEATWAVE

An intervention on Mile-end telephone poles
June 28 until August 11, 2008

In the Mile-End, telephone poles serve as a site for neighborhood communication. Everyone has an announcement to make: lost pets, garage sells, alternative bands concerts… This summer, photographs of fountains, bodies of water and deserts will insert themselves amongst the local advertising.

The themes of weather and the change of seasons were addressed because, in Québec, these subjects are often used to initiate conversations. More so, in light of global warming, the slightest climatic variation is suspect and heavily commented on. This project is specifically aimed at local citizens who do not leave the city during the summer period, stuck in the suffocating heat and the shared desire to cool off.
Taken in Argentina, France, and Québec, they are ordinary images. They deliberately do not contain a caption or a signature. The loss of reference stuns and intrigues the spectator. Each is therefore left to invent a story, to interpret the image within the context in which it is found.

 

Neighborhood pedestrians will be able to view over 20 different photographs disseminated on approximately 70 telephone poles. The images will be placed alone, or in pairs. The images will be color photocopies of digital prints, a form similar to those commonly used for community postering. In this contexte, we are not talking about conventional art objects that are finished, delimited, signed and sellable. Rather, the images exist anonymously just as a rumor does.

 

 

Geneviève Rocher is a painter and a photographer. Born in Cambridge, USA, she now lives in Montréal. She aquired a BFA from Concordia University and a Master's degree in Art History from Université de Montréal, and has been regularly exhibiting since 1993. Her work will be exhibited at Grave from September 26th to October 30th 2008, and at Galerie Lilian Rodriguez from October 17th to November 15th 2008.