Luke Painter

The teasers and the tormentors
10.27–12.03.2016
Room 2

Luke Painter is known for his drawings and animations that are inspired by art, architecture and design. These references contribute to creating a unique universe where fragments of history and popular trends intermingle. With The Teasers and the Tormentors, the artist continues this exploration by delving into the history of scenography in film, theatre, and 20th century magic shows. The title is a direct reference to the moveable horizontal and vertical curtains used to reduce the opening at the forestage, thereby controlling how much of the scenery the audience is allowed to see.

In The Teasers and the Tormentors, the curtains are in fact wooden panels that are used to mask or frame a portion of the decor that files past and transforms itself before our eyes. This visual barrier positions the viewer backstage, as a witness to the transformation occurring in the exhibition space. Painter integrates cinematic references in his animation, namely from the film The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1919) by Robert Wiene, considered to be the first cinematic work to emerge from the German Expressionist movement. In some scenes, props are built at incongruent angles, in an aesthetic nod to the strange nature of this classic horror story. The artist was also inspired by the famous scenographer Josef Svoboda, who included the use of projections in his work that allowed him to multiply and transform the scenery in both time and space. A final example comes from the inclusion of the “ghost of Pepper”, invented by John Henry Pepper, which consists of a lighting technique that gives the illusion of objects appearing, disappearing or transforming themselves. These few clues give added insight into the mechanisms behind this highly detailed and heavily referenced animation.

Integrating these references into his unique visual language, Painter has created a series of paintings that quickly construct/deconstruct and transform themselves to create formal and narrative links between each art movement or historical period. The use of a sound track, an unusual addition for the artist, fills the gallery space and helps create a link between the scrolling images. The Teasers and the Tormentors places the viewer both behind the scenes and at the front of the stage, in a work where the set becomes the lead actor.

– Manon Tourigny / translation : Jo-Anne Balcaen