Alain Paiement
Parages (Puits; Partir d’où j’habite; Pane mundial; Cave/Iris)

2002-2004

Parages is part of a praxis involving a kind of mapping, or topographical reproduction of everyday space as if it were the map of the world we inhabit. In this installation, Alain Paiement borrows representational modes from both cartography and archeological practice. Here, the artist submits his own surroundings to an unlikely kind of scrutiny, occasioned by photographing it from above. The reconstituted images present a flurry of activity, points of view, distinct timeframes and characters in which parallel entities intersect and overlap. This work achieves a fascinating experience of represented reality: the existence of the world as it is occurring.