OLIVIER RICHON
REAL ALLEGORIES

The exhibition

OLIVIER RICHON

REAL ALLEGORIES

Stillleben und Tiere

26 October – 6 December 2008

”A hypothesis: Olivier Richon uses the photograph to undo photography, to pull against the photograph‘s tie to reality, or the object, to insist on the chain of signifiers, receding infinitely as it disappears into the dark abyss of the image.“
Leslie Dick

In his photographs, Olivier Richon constructs visual allegories. At first, the images are evocative of a sumptuous and vanitas Baroque still life, despite the changes, distortions and combination of unusual contrasts the artist applies. However, upon a second glance, the viewer finds himself confused – the sense of perception changes, as Olivier Richon concentrates his photographic orchestration on the to the extreme. His works emit the illusion of immortality and at the same time the fragility of the present – oscillating between treacherous illusiveness and being, between lightness and emptiness.
Olivier Richon does not only incorporate objects in his works. In his series “Animals Looking Sideways” he lets animals become the main characters. In these images they unexpectedly seem to turn into something different – coequal to the photographer and viewer – yet they completely remain themselves: as the embodiment of the allegory in the strictest sense of the definition.

• Contact

Exhibition opening
Saturday, 25^th of October 2008 at 5 pm
bildkultur | galerie, Markelstr. 19, 70193 Stuttgart


Introduction
Dr. Matthias Bullinger
bildkultur Stuttgart


The exhibition is on view
from Sunday 26 October – Saturday 6 December 2008


Gallery hours
Monday and Wednesday 4 pm – 7 pm
and on appointment

Britisches Honorarkonsulat
in Baden-Württemberg