Enfilade de crayères, d'origine gallo-romaine 1930 - 1960

This is a photograph by Helio-Cachan, entitled "Enfilade de crayères, d'origine gallo-romaine," and even though it’s not a painting, it is all about surface and mark-making. What I see here are lines and lines of bottles, disappearing into the depths of this chalk cellar – or crayères as they're called in France. I can imagine the photographer setting up the shot, trying to capture the scale and the feeling of being in this cool, dark place. It’s like a city of bottles, each one a tiny mark in a vast, underground landscape. There’s something about the repetition that reminds me of Agnes Martin’s grids, or even the endless variations in Hanne Darboven’s conceptual works. The bottles are arranged in a grid, turning a functional storage space into something abstract and almost meditative. It makes you think about time, and labor, and the way humans leave their mark on the world, whether they mean to or not. Like the work of Bernd and Hilla Becher, Helio-Cachan reminds me of the hidden beauty in these forgotten spaces.