Trotter&Sholer is pleased to present Chimera by Jannick Deslauriers and Floria González. The term Chimera refers to a thing that is hoped or wished for but is in fact illusory or impossible to achieve. Both Deslauriers and González create work that is preternatural. It exists in a space of imagination – between the known world and a more surreal, nebulous one. The objects or scenes they present don’t exist, but we imagine they could.
For González, this takes the form of fantastical paintings that include whimsical creatures and gothic elements of the sublime. They invite a narrative reading and are evocative of fairy tales or other stories of legend. Among the walls lined with González’s painting into another world, Deslauriers’ ethereal sculptures inhabit the 3-dimensional plane. These works incorporate materials such as silk, aluminum, and mesh to blur the lines between the imagined and the extant.
The works presented in Chimera consider both the interior and exterior spaces we occupy. Together, both artists contemplated our relationship to gardens and windows. The viewer is invited to either look in or out. The structures we create to live and exist in often act as kind of domestic containers. Gardens work to contain the wildness of nature. Carefully planned and manicured vegetation creates a sense of safety and control. Similarly the walls of our homes offer a kind of boundary, a place in which we can feel safe. Both Deslauriers and González are playing with this assumption of security and certainty in their work.
Chimera can also refer to a fire-breathing female monster with a lion’s head, a goat’s body, and a serpent’s tail. This image, taken from Greek mythology, resonates throughout this exhibition. This two-person show of formidable artists recalls the hybridity of the chimera’s body; a sculptor and a painter have worked in close conversation to create this multifaceted exhibition. The mythical Chimera is misunderstood, destructive and
dangerous. While Deslauriers and González are engaged in a creative project of construction, they both play with the illusion or concept of ruin and fear in their work.
Chimera will be on view at 168 Suffolk Street through March 22nd.
