Pre Natal Phase




Pre-natal



I called this phase “Pre-Natal”, then “Baby”, 2011–2013. I wanted to understand what an avant-garde could mean from where I stood. Calling a practice new could not be enough. What would have to change in making, showing and encountering a work?

A studio, an exhibition, a screen and a printed page give the same work different neighbours and different durations. Marshall McLuhan’s The Medium Is the Massage and Brian O’Doherty’s writing on the white cube helped me think through those settings. The conditions of presentation could themselves become material.

An object could be a word; an installation could form a sentence. Moving a work, leaving a gap or changing the order gave arranging the possibilities of editing. A visitor’s path would make another sequence from the same elements.

Labels and explanatory panels entered that research. A painting could behave like a label; a label could become an object. Information gives someone a way in, but it can also decide too much in advance. I wanted to leave room for what each person knows, remembers or cannot yet place.

The exhibition became one working format among the studio, the book and the website. Each could change what a work was able to do. The pieces gathered here keep that enquiry open through ordinary supports, variable arrangements and particular places.








Studio > < Exhibition
variable objects, variable dimensions
2013


Accident Painting
resin, phosphorescent spray, cotton canvas, spruce
121 × 31 × 4 cm
2012













C. R. O. M.
Group show with Paul Limoujoux and Nicolas Degrange
Tour St. Jacques
St. Émilion, France
2012


Une Histoire de Plage
chair, latex, tarp, latex, tarp
130 × 80 × 35 cm
2012


L’une
resin, oil bottle
20 x 20 x 60 cm
2012


Levier
resin, bottle rack
60 x 40 x40 cm
2012





4pm, 2011. Arthur Fouray. Performance video with sound · 49 min 51 sec.

A seated figure faces a sheet of paper in a blue-lit room. Telephone calls, writing, drawing and repeated gestures interrupt stretches of waiting. The sustained, fixed view follows these actions over almost fifty minutes.

The rhythm comes from small changes in posture, attention and activity. Ordinary actions accumulate within the same setting, making the passage of time part of the viewing experience.

The work sits in Fouray’s early Pre Natal period, when his practice moved between performance, painting, objects, video and digital media. His account of the period places particular emphasis on presentation and on the relationships that arise when works are brought together: arranging an exhibition could be approached as a form of film editing.

For biographical context, ECAL’s published 2015 chronology places Fouray in his second year at the school in 2011 and records his fine arts bachelor’s degree in 2013. This situates the film within the early years of his practice.

Other video works from this period include Missing Information (2011), which develops digital abstraction, and PAV (2012), in which a printed book is gradually covered in blue pigment. They offer different approaches to movement, repetition and the relation between an image and a physical action.

Further reading: ECAL — 2015 chronology.

Watch 4pm on YouTube



Mic/Not Working
écal
Renens, Switzerland
2011

Playing Labels (Cartels à Jouer)
37 playing cards, 62 x 87 mm
2012

Notes:
Wall labels drawn as paintings, and paintings written as labels: the origin of P+. The whole deck is P+ N.
PDF: English / Français


1/2 Agnès Martin
acrylic on canvas
76.4 x 76.4 x 2.5 cm
2012

Notes:
The best conditions for this canvas to be fully appreciated are met when it is hung at eye level, and is more than one size away from the other pieces.

  1. 1/2 Agnès Martin
    Arthur Fouray,
    acrylic on canvas,
    2012,
    76.4 x 76.4 x 2.5 cm.
    Notes:
    The best conditions for this
    canvas to be fully appreciated
    are met when it is hung at eye
    level, and is more than one size
    away from the other pieces.


CHROME
Canvas on frame, spray-painted
2012

Notes:
This canvas can be displayed vertically, or diagonally, depending on use. The white wall is a quality choice.

  1. CHROME
    Arthur Fouray,
    Canvas on frame,
    spray-painted,
    2012.
    Notes:
    This canvas can be displayed
    vertically, or diagonally,
    depending on use. The white wall
    is a quality choice.








Ok?
Galerie Toroni
écal
Renens, Switzerland
2012

Et alors ?
Arthur Fouray
2012

Read Et alors ? — PDF, French, 4 pages

Et alors ? by Arthur Fouray — first page of the corrected edition
Read Et alors ? here


Exercices de recherches
Arthur Fouray
2012

D’après Raymond Queneau et Google
Quatrième de couverture d’Exercices de style + Google Search

Read Exercices de recherches — PDF, French, 9 pages

Exercices de recherches by Arthur Fouray — first page of the corrected edition
Read Exercices de recherches here

If a PDF reader is unavailable, use the PDF links above.







Pour le plus beau des arts, essayez le Pop

Arthur Fouray, 2012 — Rebus analysis of Richard Hamilton’s work

Pour le plus beau des arts, essayez le Pop — PDF, French, 42 pages

Pour le plus beau des arts, essayez le Pop — first page of this linked edition
Read Pour le plus beau des arts, essayez le Pop here

If your browser does not show the PDF reader, open the PDF.




Dal(le) Erranc(e)
2 resin bricks
25.5 × 12.5 × 6 cm
2012

Notes:
These two bricks must be presented side by side on the floor. The arrangement is left to the curator's discretion.


PEPITO
Resin and foam on sagex
25 x 25 x3 cm
2012

Notes:
This sculpture must be presented on a wall, 175 cm from the floor.

  1. PEPITO PIZZA
    Arthur Fouray,
    Resin and foam
    on sagex,
    2012.
    Notes:
    This sculpture must imperatively
    be shown on the wall, at a height
    other than 175 cm.

PAV, 2012. Arthur Fouray. Performance video with sound · 14 min 23 sec.

Gloved hands repeatedly apply blue pigment to a copy of Premier Amour. The printed object, hands and surrounding workspace gradually merge into a monochrome field. The sustained action brings a literary text, a physical book and the making of an image together.

Literary source: Samuel Beckett, Premier amour, published in French by Les Éditions de Minuit in 1970. The book is present as a material object within the filmed action.

The artist’s 2012 portfolio lists the work’s materials as a book, a squeezer or paint applicator, gloves and leatherette. Its original label gives a 16:9 format and variable display dimensions.

The 2012 installation notes allow different playback supports. For projection, the pale blue outline seen in the video must also be painted on the wall. P.A.S. (2012), the related book-on-printed-canvas sculpture, is placed on the floor; the video and sculpture may be shown separately.

These instructions also appear in Playing Labels (Cartels à Jouer), the 2012 set of 37 cards now presented as P+ N. In this project, labels and display instructions become material that can be arranged and played, extending the artwork’s relationship with its exhibition setting.

PAV belongs to Fouray’s early Pre Natal period, when painting, objects, performance, video and display were considered together. The artist’s account of this period treats the arrangement of works as a way of constructing relationships and sequences for the viewer.

Documentation: Arthur Fouray, Cartes Cartels, 2012, pp. 43–44; the 2012 portfolio.

Further reading: P+ N — original P.A.V. and P.A.S. labels · Samuel Beckett — Premier amour, Éditions de Minuit.

Watch PAV on YouTube

P.A.S.
acrylic, cotton canvas,
P.A.V. (book on printed canvas), MDF
54 × 29 × 3.5 cm
2012

Notes:
This testimonial-sculpture is to be placed on the floor. Connection with the video "P.A.V." is not necessary.

  1. P.A.S.
    Arthur Fouray,
    book on printed canvas,
    2012,
    27 x 46.5 x 3 cm.
    Notes:
    This testimonial-sculpture is to
    be placed on the floor.
    Connection with the video
    “P.A.V.” is not necessary.






FAUX PLAFOND
Rosette (white) on painted wall (blue)
125 × variable height x 2 cm
2012

Notes
The rosette should appear on an azure/sea-blue background. The wall must be painted with scotch tape on the left and right, starting at the floor. The wall painting stops at the highest point the painter can reach. Paint is applied with a roller.

  1. FAUX PLAFOND
    Arthur Fouray,
    Rosette (white) on
    painted wall (blue),
    2012.
    Notes:
    The rosette should appear on an
    azure/sea-blue background. The
    wall must be painted with scotch
    tape on the left and right, starting
    at the floor. The wall painting
    stops at the highest point the
    painter can reach. Paint is
    applied with a roller.


FROMAGE
Four layers of resin, yellow, orange, then 2x yellow, on object
25 × 70 × 15 cm
2012

Notes:
This panoptical object should be placed intelligently on the floor. It can also play with "FROMAGE (BIS)".

  1. FROMAGE
    Arthur Fouray,
    Four layers of
    resin, yellow, orange,
    then 2x yellow,
    on object,
    2012.
    Notes:
    This panoptical object should be
    placed intelligently on the floor. It
    can also play with “FROMAGE
    (BIS)”.
  2. FROMAGE (BIS)
    Arthur Fouray,
    Spray paint and
    resin on object,
    2012.
    Notes:
    This panoptical object should be
    placed intelligently, on the floor,
    on the wall or on the ceiling, to
    raise a question about its
    function. It can also play with
    “FROMAGE”.




DE)ª(F

Arthur Fouray, ECAL, 2013 — Memoir; original experimental design with matched covers

DE)ª(F — PDF, French, 64 pages

DE)ª(F — first page of this linked edition
Read DE)ª(F here

If your browser does not show the PDF reader, open the PDF.

Pre Natal Portfolio

Pre Natal Portfolio — English PDF
Open the two-page view

Pre Natal Portfolio by Arthur Fouray — first page of the 24-page paired edition
Read Pre Natal Portfolio here

If the PDF reader is unavailable, open the two-page PDF or download the single-page edition.