Every Foot of the Sidewalk: boulevard Saint-Laurent (2010-2012)

Martha Langford in conversation with artist Philippe Guillaume

Philippe Guillaume deals with the intersections between photography, walking, and city space in his exhibition, Every Foot of the Sidewalk: boulevard Saint-Laurent (2010-2012). Photography and ambulating have a conspicuous relationship to urban space - while one fixes a horizon line, where (for an instant) the present past and present future meet, the other sets a rhythm that counters the frenzy of the contemporary metropolis. Walking with a camera results in a view of the city where the sidewalk is an ever-changing and recurrent space. As an artist Guillaume is interested in investigating new ways of looking at urban sidewalks and streets with the creation of multi-media, multi-image photographic arrangements that disrupt a single point of view of city space. These photographic cityscapes allow Guillaume to express his critical thinking about perambulatory space, while also considering the social aspects of time in an increasingly standardized world. His installation will present photography, video and reference materials in an expanded exhibition of his SIP thesis, accepted last year.

Philippe Guillaume is based in Montreal where he completed an interdisciplinary MA engaged with photography and art history at Concordia University in 2012. His current art work deals with the combination of photography and walking in Canadian art; this connection was also the theme for his thesis. Before deciding to concentrate on research and creation he worked as an independent fashion photographer, and his work was published nationally and internationally. He has been the recipient of two Lux Professional Photography and Illustration in Quebec Grand Prizes for photography, and his artwork is part of the Collection Patrimoniale Bibliothèque National du Québec, as well as the National Gallery of Canada. Since 2009, he has written photographic reviews for CV magazine and in Montréal as Palimpsest: The Dialectics of Montréal's Public Spaces, published by the Gail and Stephen Jarislowsky Institute for the Study of Canadian Art.

Wednesday, January 16th, 6 - 7 pm

Lecture will be held in EV 1.715
FOFA Gallery, Concordia University
Engineering, Computer Science and Visual Arts Complex
1515 Ste-Catherine Street West. Metro Guy-Concordia.