Interstice: A solo exhibition by Alexis Dahan

3 March - 12 April 2016

“I am not interested in what potholes tell us historically or sociologically. What interests me is how the past manifests itself in the current form of modern cities. I am particularly interested in the potholes because they physically contain successive periods of time in only one phenomenon. They are like an opening in a mountain where one can read through natural sedimentation.

 

A pothole has the form of a wound, an opening onto something deeper that lay beneath the surface. I call these sculptures polis parapraxis because if the city had a mind, I believe this is how a Freudian slip would manifest itself. These forms were created by accident, we could almost say "naturally", with the combined action of traffic and weather over time. These phenomenons happen when Time manifests itself physically.

 

What I do is purely representational. Photography is the absolute mimetic medium and molding/casting is a type of 3D photography. This way each pothole can be reproduced with as much clarity as possible to acquire a near-fossil status.

 

To some of them I added an antique nail that was used as a road code symbol to signify pedestrian crossing in Paris before cobblestone roads got covered with tarmac. Another addition is an ultramarine blue paint drip that randomly fills the interstice. Both actions are here to highlight the intersticial aspect of the form. Now the overlooked void that was in-between has become the most important part of the form.

 

I represent signs of urban erosion through my artworks because I believe cities have become our natural habitat, with its own natural cycles and sedimentary rhythm.

Furthermore, my artworks highlight the interstice in an attempt to give this "non-space" a status as object in itself.”

 

-Alexis Dahan

March 2016