Double conjonction 2015

Curator: Benoit Maire’s “Double Conjonction” from 2015, employing mixed media including wood and found objects, invites us to consider the poetics of display. Editor: It’s… intriguing. The wood grid creates this kind of cabinet of curiosities effect, but then the objects within seem so intentionally… mundane. Almost a deliberate anti-climax. Is it a treasure chest of the everyday? Curator: Precisely. Maire’s work often plays with philosophical concepts. Here, it evokes the relationships between objects and their contexts, suggesting a dialogue between the natural, the manufactured, and the representational. Look at the wood itself – the handmade grid that divides the space. Editor: Good point, its that handmade feel juxtaposed against this almost clinical arrangement that gets me. That scrap of material on the upper right for example. The rough edges. It looks like remnants of an experiment gone awry, which sits pretty well along with the small black artifact below. And a beautiful golden stone... Curator: That combination of organic forms and synthetic remnants points toward some very broad issues, like a geological specimen coexisting with something mass-produced... It’s a system of contrasts. I think this reflects a tension that's particularly poignant in contemporary life. How do you interpret the negative space around these pieces? Editor: The emptiness feels just as important. Almost as if it’s about what is *not* there. And that's the charm of it for me - each quadrant begs its own story, a poem if you will. Like waiting for someone to add their own treasures into each cell. Curator: So in a sense, the viewer participates in the work by completing the narrative. Editor: Absolutely. Or destroying it entirely if someone wants to throw a load of feathers and glitter over it! Isn't it fabulous? This artwork has real energy. Curator: Energy born of open-ended inquiry. Editor: You know what I see now? Its beauty... Curator: That is the crux of the entire discussion. Editor: Thank you.