Views from "Pour dernier terrain vague" solo show , MASC - Musée de l'Abbaye Sainte-Croix, Les Sables d'Olonne, 2019
pictures (2-3-4-6-7) © Rebecca Fanuele

In the Yellow Haze of the Sun (Dans la brume jaune du soleil)
2019
Synthetic white gypsum, thermo-coated steel
800 × 800 × 148 cm (315 x 315 x 58.3 inches)

"If the mandorla shape of the mirror used as model corresponds to that of the vesica piscis, the circular patrol that he made from some thirty casts of the mirror, in the middle of the patio, creates a perfect circle. Each mirror is tilted slightly and fixed onto a base that seems to keep it suspended above the ground; the mirrors' inner faces are impregnated with varying degrees of yellow pigment and their backs fully covered with black paint. Entitled In the Yellow Haze of the Sun, this installation once again pertains to the artist's interest in all things related to the cosmos, the astral mechanism and, by extension, the universal. Its distinguishing feature is its dimension – at least poetic if not fictitious – in that it conjures up the image of a solar eclipse. Because of its closed circular form, the viewer is only able to approach it from the outside and can only ever see half of the back and front of the whole piece. By walking around it – which is what one is meant to do – the viewer discovers the dynamics specific to this celestial phenomenon and, as he moves around finds himself in a position to recreate it himself, as the black backs of the mirrors mask the inner luminous surfaces, one by one in succession. In this way, Thomas Tronel-Gauthier sets the viewer at the heart of an interpersonal aesthetic experiment, at the level of the universe, in a spatial and temporal relationship that is decidedly unique." (Philippe Piguet)

 

Le dernier terrain vague