Masters of Illusion

This selection features a selection of works that do not reveal all their secrets at first glance. Or rather, they create a sense of doubt by playing with our perceptions and forcing us to ask the question: what am I looking at?

Peter Brooke-Ball

Bound by a simple rope, the stone appears to question its strength and to transform itself into an elastic material.  Peter Brooke-Ball captures our attention by playing with the physical properties of materials. Depending on how they are perceived, his enigmatic sculptures can be at times amusing and at times disturbing. The artist leaves us to our own interpretations, while artfully suggesting some keys to understanding through the titles of his works.

Doris Marten

In her Layers series, Doris Marten creates the impression of 3D works, where geometric shapes are superimposed one upon the other in an infinite combination of nuances and colors. Each work is composed of simple, painted lines juxtaposed on the same surface using a palette limited to just seven colors.   With the utmost economy of means, the artist succeeds in challenging our visual perception.

Xavier Dumoulin

Remote towns and villages in the wilderness, so transfigured by artificial lighting that, at first glance, it appears that we are observing a fire or a lava flow. Using long-exposure shots taken during the dark of night, Xavier Dumoulin‘s photographs are intended to make us aware of how light pollution deprives us of the visual spectacle of a starry night sky.  “An inestimable loss of a certain poetic rapport in the world,” according to the artist.

Romain Langlois

Hyakutake, the latest creation by Romain Langlois, which seems to depict an exploding petrified rock, is actually made entirely of bronze. Through his masterful work on the patina, the artist recreates the exact appearance of the rock, while the polished bronze evokes molten magma emerging from its core. “Inanimate objects, do you have a soul?”

Guy Oberson

A news image or an advertising image? As consumers of images, we can distinguish between the two, despite their continuous coexistence in the media.  But when, by reinterpreting each image using a single technique (black stone), Guy Oberson strips them of the visual codes that make them recognizable to us, our reason is led astray and levels of interpretation are multiplied…