“Through various encounters and collaborations her works constantly question images, their status, (re) presentation and activation, as well as their production processes. This artist does not consider herself a photographer: she deconstructs; reconnects; questions within the bounds of the media. She paves the way by exploring the margins, making the photographic material resonate in a dialogue with thousands of voices. Like a dialectic stemming from the same and the other, without ever repeating she develops, reveals what is in the negative space, not showing. Yet Aurélie Pétrel is a photographer: the issues in her shots are always significant. They act as a trigger, the driving force of an expression like a musical score. The first movement makes the rest possible. By blurring the boundaries between work, representation and the world experienced, she transforms our perspectives.”

Aurélie Pétrel makes fun of photography by providing it with the very dimension it is missing, the third. This use of the production and display modes of photography led her to installation. About the work on display she states, “The indicative signs of measurement are set in brass plates, structurally linked in the show, i.e. the protractor, the timer, a couple photographed from behind. These three small-scale images possess a certain preciousness; they are the genesis, the reference to the unity of time/data, space, and presence/gaze. The golden effect of the brass could elevate these images to the ranks of icons, or photos imbued with the past. The texture is posited as the starting point for a conceptual reflection.”

(Excerpt from the conversation between Sandra Doublet and Aurélie Pétrel, based on the display and the text by Alex Brown for the Track 3show, which ran from 07/12/2018to 09/02/2019 at Gallery 44 (G44), Centre for Contemporary Photography in Toronto)