Serge Clément, Jane Corkin Gallery, Toronto

Serge Clément
Jane Corkin Gallery, Toronto
September 23 - October 23, 1999

Jane Corkin Gallery presents new work by Montreal photographer Serge Clément (b. 1950).

Serge Clément has been making photographs for the past twenty years. For this most recent body of work, he travelled through Europe, Asia and Canada. The photographs link past and present. They document how light and dark coexist, a powerful metaphor for life.

Serge Clément catches reflections in window panes, polished stone, puddles. The layers they create capture concrete details - a building facade, the curve of a street, a hand in a painting - and fleeting light and shadows. The images are intricate and abstract. They are transient moments. This is how he interacts with history. His photographs are the remains of his perception, and the record of his interaction.

In each image there is a sense of time passing. For Serge Clément, this body of work was his way of taming death. Many of the photographs are sombre and introspective. In the end, however, the light takes over. With each image, Serge Clément challenges us to look, to question what we see, to find the details, and leaves us knowing that the world is not always what it seems. He tells us that moments pass, that we are mortal, that richness and redemption lie in looking.

JANE CORKIN GALLERY
179 John Street, Suite 302, Toronto, ON, M5T 1X4
www.janecorkin.com