While visiting a show of Richer's conceptually-based sculptural works at the Center for Contemporary Art in Rennes in November, I found in their bookshop a sharply designed accordion catalogue for a show of his from 2012.
Richer's gallery, Meessen De Clercq in Belgium, describes his works as coming out of a "...scientific-exploratory mode..." and that "...he challenges our systems of measurement and our perceptual and spatial conventions". Indeed, in surveying his works & installations created between 2003-2013 it's immediately apparent that this 'research' approach has been applied to all sorts of very different materials with fascinating and unexpected results.
The works that form the core of this portfolio are from a series titled Les Micachromes (2012) which consists of a series of 11 Cibrachrome photographs (172 x 123 cms). The photographs are enlargements of sheets of mica and the artist "Fascinated by the transparent quality of this rock...has used each sheet as a positive (so there is no actual film) and enlarged it onto Cibachrome paper (a technique threatened with extinction). Having played a significant role in the development of life on earth, mica is seen here in its 'intimacy'. It reveals a natural structure that recalls a formal analogy with gestural art, whether the oriental or Western variant." [selected works: 2002-2013, Meessen De Clercq]
10 single-sided pages, individually 9.25" x 6.75" and when unfolded 5ft 7.5"
leporello with accompanying catalogue
back cover
