Curated by Caroline Andrieux
Fonderie Darling
Montreal, CA
September 26–December 8, 2024
by Jérôme Delgado (November, 2024) of
⇋ Déliquescence
at the Fonderie Darling
⤹ Spirale magazine review
by Anne-Sophie Miclo of
⇋ Déliquescence
at the Fonderie Darling
This exhibition was inspired by my ongoing interest in brownfields, which also undergo a type of entropy. My fascination for their status as ruins that slowly degrade over time and my interest in wanting to reverse this trend by restoring them are part of a constant negotiation with this form of obsolescence. Poeticizing decay or chaos, exalting the fragility of seemingly immutable elements have always been a driver for the projects I have carried out. With this exhibition and through the works chosen, I have wanted to underline the ineluctable transformation of every thing, be it alive or inanimate.
Allowed to malfunction or decay, due to a chemical or biological mutation, a principle of fusion or melting, each artwork in the exhibition undergoes an evolution towards decomposition, abandoning its defined form and accepting its disintegration.
The group exhibition Déliquescence brings into dialogue works by Quebec and international artists around the theme of entropy. One of the fundamental principles of physics—the second law of thermodynamics—posits entropy as the inevitable decline of all things. The exhibition considers the definition of this concept as energy that measures deterioration, quantifies the intensity of the transformation from an ordered to an uncontrolled state, quantitatively establishes the degree of disorder in a system, its ability to change state, or its degree of instability. Whether it involves the collapse of ruins, the organic transformation of perishable materials, or the chemical processes that alter an object to the extent that it stops working, entropy represents the tendency of all matter and energy in the universe to evolve towards a state of disorder before reaching a neutrality, an inert uniformity, or a radical transformation into another condition. Left to their own disruption, the result of chemical or biological mutation, fusion or melting, each of these artistic proposals submits to an evolution towards decomposition, the abandonment of its defined form and the acceptance of its dissolution.
This exhibition was inspired by my ongoing interest in brownfields, which also undergo a type of entropy. My fascination for their status as ruins that slowly degrade over time and my interest in wanting to reverse this trend by restoring them are part of a constant negotiation with this form of obsolescence. Poeticizing decay or chaos, exalting the fragility of seemingly immutable elements have always been a driver for the projects I have carried out. With this exhibition and through the works chosen, I have wanted to underline the ineluctable transformation of every thing, be it alive or inanimate.
Allowed to malfunction or decay, due to a chemical or biological mutation, a principle of fusion or melting, each artwork in the exhibition undergoes an evolution towards decomposition, abandoning its defined form and accepting its disintegration.
Image Captions
Installation view
Installation view
Installation view
Père Lachaise, 2016
Pigment print on Baryta paper mounted on dibond
40 x 60 inches (122cm x 152cm).
Baldwin Detritus #1, 2024
Hand-Printed silver gelatine print mounted on dibond
48 x 60 inches (122cm x 152cm).
Baldwin Detritus #2, 2024
Hand-Printed silver gelatine print mounted on dibond
48 x 60 inches (122cm x 152cm).
Installation view