Denis Larouche a.o.c.a.d.

Alumnus of the Ontario College of Art and Design

"... as though to let him know that creation was only

the product of a dance of atoms ...”

Umberto Eco, The Island of the Day Before.

"The Sky and the Earth are as old as I am,

and the thousands of things are one."

Zhuang Zi, circa 300 B.C.

"If the doors of perception were cleansed

everything would appear to man as it is, infinite"

William Blake

Artistic intent

In the process of deconstructing and reconstructing matter and space, how many ways can the artist interpret a sky, water, or the earth? Because its very nature implies change, we accept the many identities assumed by our environment, while our own tendency towards organization makes us look for and find structure in it. Our mind groups and organizes these various elements. In the deconstructed space that is the natural environment, a single symbolic element defines it and gives it meaning. This familiar form is enough for us to reconstruct a landscape. It all comes down to our perception and acceptance of these painted shapes.

Since 2008

I am fascinated by the idea, in physics, that light, matter and energy can be one and the same. That they originate from a single source. This concept influences the way I see the world and the way I paint

Because at the level of nuclear particles there is no real difference between solid, liquid and gas, between a tree and a man, the notion of distinct physical entity loses its meaning. Water, air and earth are made of the same elements and there is no clear separation, “…only a dance of atoms…” In this way, the object-subject becomes a point of reference. But it only defines the space surrounding it, giving it meaning. The treatment of this space becomes a search in itself. An interrogation on the structure of Matter, and the nature of what we call Landscape.

One may wonder about the inclusion of quantic equations into a painting. Put physics being a way of seeing and describing the world - though a much more precise and measured one - these two disciplines really are complementary. Like physics, painting, is the result of observation, interrogation and experimentation.

It is not a study of the structure of matter, but a reflection on this structure, on this discovery by science that all things are one and proceed from the same source.

As the artist pursues his deconstruction of space, the viewer is invited to become aware of his own reconstruction process, of this Gestalt bridging the gap between the artist and the viewer.

Denis Larouche

Gatineau (Hull), QC

2010