CCNY | Pierre Le Hors | Period Act | A CCNY Darkroom Residency solo exhibition

Period Act, a solo exhibition by 2013 CCNY Darkroom Resident Pierre Le Hors, pictures the museum as a space of fragments and fantasy. This exhibition marks the last of four solo exhibitions from the recipients of the 2013 CCNY Darkroom Residency Program.

Walking through the museum, I pass vitrines of glassware carefully arranged by type, period, and provenance. I see pitchers, decanters, vases, ewers, vials, cups and glasses for all occasions. Reflections multiplying and distorting each other, they are empty containers, themselves encased in glass and stripped of their utility. They are perfect objects, speaking to the conditions of their own display.

The Sense of Sight, attributed to Juan Dò, formerly known as A Girl with a Mirror by Ribera, is an oil painting depicting a seated woman seen in profile. Her left hand holds a mirror, into which she gazes, expressionless. Her right hand is held to the side of her head in an ambiguous gesture. She might be reaching up to fix her hair, or to hold her head in disbelief. Her downcast eyes in the mirror suggest she is looking not at herself but at something lying just off the frame, to the right.

On view are only parts of an incomplete whole. Moving past period rooms, visible storage, and galleries closed for installation, time collapses and the museum becomes a forest of fragments in which I gladly lose myself and find rhythm. Each room lays out its objects like bits of a corpse successively exposed. Because I can never see its entire body, nor hold it in my mind, I fill in the gaps with my own memories and fantasies. Its shape is slowly but constantly changing. Arrangements of pictures and objects provide the setting for this erotic act.

–Pierre Le Hors

Born in France in 1981, Pierre Le Hors lives and works in Brooklyn. He earned his MFA in 2010 from the ICP-Bard MFA Program. His latest book, Byways & Through Lines, was published in 2013 by Dashwood Books. His website is pierrelehors.com.

The CCNY Darkroom Residency Program offers local photographers much-needed workspace in New York City as well as access to the CCNY community and programs. Each year, emerging photographers living in New York City are invited to apply for this program. The four recipients of the 2013 CCNY Darkroom Residency Program – Pierre Le Hors, Pixy Yijun Liao, Francesco Palombi, and Brea Souders – are the second group of residents to have solo exhibitions, thanks to the generous support of The Jerome Foundation. For more information about the CCNY Darkroom Residency Program, please visit our website.

Gallery hours: Monday – Saturday 12 - 6 pm

The CCNY Darkroom Residency Program is made possible by generous support from Fujifilm; Kodak; public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, in partnership with the City Council; the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew Cuomo and the New York State Legislature; Foundation for Contemporary Arts; and The Jerome Foundation.

CCNY is celebrating over 125 years serving the photographic and art community through this and upcoming exhibitions, lectures, and special events. For more information, contact John Stanley at info@cameraclubny.org or by phone at 212–260–9927.