Kaleidoscope In Evolution

In 1996, I was one of a group of artists at the Galerie Verticale Art Contemporain, in Laval, Quebec. We worked and planned our projects in the presence of violinists, relating our work to their music.

This environment led me to follow my interests of associating sound with color, and to continue my preoccupations with geometry, color, and illusion. It permitted me, at the same time, to probe more deeply into the relations between the two-dimensionality of painting, and the three-dimensionality of sculpture.

The first product of this long series, “Notation for Musical Improvisation”, was formed of three triangular pyramids, each formed of three triangular panels painted on both sides. I used wooden dowels and rings to secure the sides in place.

To put the emphasis on color, I limited the element of shape to a simple geometric motif, the hexagon that I have used for years.

It’s an inter-active work. All panels are interchangeable.

Optical illusions present themselves. The most striking examples are evident in photos taken from specific points of view.

A period of experimentation with different possible structures began.

Structure Experimentation Structure Experimentation Structure Experimentation
Structure Experimentation Structure Experimentation Structure Experimentation

The First Kaleidoscope 2009

First Kaleidoscope

I made my first “Kaleidoscope” by forming six pyramids and arranging them in the form of a regular hexagon. It is approximately five feet in diameter. I showed it first on the floor, then raised it to a slight angle, and finally fixed it to the wall where it can be turned, and viewed from many different angles. Panels are secured with Velcro. It, too, is inter-active, as all panels are interchangeable.

The work, which concerns evolution, has itself been in evolution since the beginning, and it reflects my interest with infinity in the sense that there are a seemingly endless number of ways of arranging the parts.

It is also a reflection on the notion of perfection in art. Is there one perfect way of organizing all the elements in a given work? Or is art, like nature, an evolution in imperfection? Chance is very present in natural reproduction, and, indeed, is necessary for evolution and variety.

The Second Kaleidoscope 2009

This “Kaleidoscope”, panel by panel, is a photographic reproduction of the original, modified digitally, and mounted under plexiglas.

Magnets are used to hold the panels in place. I made thirty-six panels which can be interchanged in the work itself and in two accompanying works which can be transformed in several ways.

"Back-to-Back Kaleidoscope" 2009

This three-dimensional “painting” is closer to sculpture than the others as it is free-standing. We can walk around it to see all points of view.

Like the others, it is inter-active, and as the second one , it is a photographic reproduction of the original, made in the same way.

Again, there are supplementary panels which are used in the work and in an accompanying work. This second work takes the form of my hexagonal motif, and it relates closely to “Poursuite de l’hexagone”, an installation that I mounted at the Galerie Verticale in 1996. All panels in the two works are interchangeable.

Kaleidoscope" the DVD 2010

This is an animated film which I produced by taking hundreds of photos of the original “Kaleidoscope” using a frame-by-frame technique. Before taking each photo, I changed several panels, and rotated the work a small degree. These photos were then processed digitally.

The resulting DVD rends homage to color, to music, to evolution, and to infinity. Viewers are invited to contemplate the evolving universe at galactic and at subatomic levels, and in everything that lives.

Kaleidoscope A - Z, 2010 - 2014

This is the culminating Kaleidoscope, much more complex than the others. It contains twenty-four pyramids with seventy-two interchangeable panels. It is an inter-active work, and it rotates on the wall. There is an accompanying smaller Kaleidoscope of six pyramids.

Twenty-six watercolors (one for each letter of the alphabet) have been painted in a regular format of 21” X 30”. Each water-color contains a triangular portion which has been photographed, and modified digitally, to make the triangular panels.

I hope to show the watercolors and the Kaleidoscope as one work.

Another animated film is in production.

View the Video View the Watercolors