AIRES

Matter and movement – these fragments are fascinating not only because of the web they weave but also for their intrinsic purity carved into a study of detail. We half recognise India here and there, but the unusual never becomes a symbol of the exotic. Be it the sandy trench being stamped down by a man’s expert sidestep or the leafage reflected in the tiny mirror decorating a woman’s costume, a chicken’s foot protruding from a steamer or the rhythmic thud of laundry beaten on stone, each element is captured in all its strangeness and, at the same time, in a familiar perfection that bears the mark of hand or tool. Like a Francis Ponge, François Daireaux uses the precision of his sharp cuts and fades-to-black to sculpt from reality, polish objects, movements, forms, elements, and finally rejuvenate our way of seeing. Chickens peck on a bed, torrential rain transforms a barn into an abstract painting. Our eyes are continuously on the lookout, busy identifying actions or places that are suddenly redefined as the camera zooms out. A recurring image – fires burning in the earth and covered with lids offer us a metaphor of the filmic fragments themselves: vivacious wholes, mysterious and hypnotising. (Charlotte Garson)