Isabelle Dehay

Produced for the 2024 edition of the Quinzaine Photographique Nantaise, the film Pixel Painting #Luge is set against the snow-covered landscapes of the Cantal.
The artist captures the evocative and phantasmagorical nature of the phenomenon of snow. In the video, the snow is that ‘white noise’ on the screen before the image appears. More than simply devoid of any information, the landscape here seems to vanish, giving way to the purity of a mental landscape, offering a new narrative to the space of the scene. The artist has designed and written an algorithm enabling him to observe movements and, accordingly, to select, sort and weave pixels throughout the filmed sequence. Everything did indeed take place, but in a different order to the one presented to you. The protagonists explore the snow. Just as our memory fragments a recollection, certain parts of the image disappear. They will soon be covered by a new sample of pixels, or perhaps a fresh layer of powder snow.

The NEVE series presents these images from the film transferred onto canvas, with the pixels blending into the paint. The fragility of landscapes, the fragility of humanity. The viewer reconstructs the possible interactions between people, fills in the unspeakable, guided by a pared-back image that appeals to sensory memory as well as childhood recollections. Artistically, the film highlights the fragmentation of life, the infinitesimal nature of the pixel, and the effect of speed on how our brain retains and reconstructs the information it receives. Beyond what is visible, in the whiteness of the crystals, bodies, gestures and our perceptions merge.