The exhibition Possession currently at Galerie SAS is artist Laurent Craste‘s curatorial debut. You may be familiar with Craste’s exquisite porcelain and installation works which have been exhibited at Circa and Galerie SAS in recent years. Now for the first time he is taking on the role of curator, and the concept of this exhibition closely parallels his own artistic practice.

Craste’s work deals with the emotions we bestow on inanimate objects. Says the artist in his curator’s statement:

Today, I devote my artistic profession to exploring the multiple layers of signification of decorative collector’s items, notably the socio-political aspect, but also, and more importantly, the emotions we feel towards them. Because of the intimate relationships we have with them, objects become the depositaries of personal history fragments and support for expectations, attachment and emotions. Embodiments of affects and actual experience, objects become “inhabited” and it is this affective value that the romantic poet was talking about when he was acknowledging the “soul” of “inanimate objects.”

Craste exhibits his own works along with the sculptures, photographs and drawings of Anne Ramsden, Yannick Pouliot, and Jannick Deslauriers.

Ramsden’s work deals with loss and nostalgia, such as in her diptych Anastylosis Childhood (Flying). The piece consists of two large photographs, one of evenly spaced out shards of broken dinner plates, and the other with the plates reassembled, the amber glue lines visible like scars. The plates must have belonged to a child, as they are embellished with illustrations of French story characters such as Becassine, Tintin, and Le Petit Prince. But childhood memories, once shattered, are never truly mended.

My favourite piece of Ramsden’s – and maybe of the entire show – is her sculptural work Home Economics. In a puddle on the floor, completely deflated, lies the upholstery removed from the armchair of Ramsden’s recently deceased mother. It is a touching artwork which eloquently communicates the emptiness that follows profound loss, and the absence of support and comfort symbolized by the missing structure and cushioning of the armchair.

At the back of the gallery, Yannick Pouliot presents his own piece of modified furniture. Les ensembles consists of a row of six Victorian dining chairs, all connected by a tube of upholstery which stretches through the oval chair backs. This fusion renders the object completely unusable. Now no longer a piece of furniture, it takes on a new character – paradoxical, humorous, futile.

In the smaller exhibition room Jannick Deslauriers displays a series of her ephemeral sculptures sewn out of tulle and lace. Solid objects become fragile and transparent: a piano, a typewriter, a sewing machine, an iron, are all recreated live-sized, suspended from the ceiling by dozens of invisible wires. Dripping with cascades of fine sewing threads, they are phantoms of their former selves.

Laurent Craste introduces us again to his collection of vases, which come to life like little jubilant characters. The handles of Melting pot I and Melting pot II curl upwards, tiny arms punching the air. A gash cut into the belly of one of the vases transforms into a toothless smile. Occasionally mutilated with bite marks, someone is clearly loving these luxury objects a bit(e) too much.

But then – can you ever love art too much?

Galerie SAS, space 416
Laurent Craste, Jannick Deslauriers, Yannick Pouliot, Anne Ramsden
Possession
March 15 – April 21, 2012
www.galeriesas.com