Folding version/Altarpiece: A hinged black-painted steel structure. Front: 3 color photographs, Diasec® mounted. Back: black-painted steel plates, hand-written text in white pencil.
Size: Side panels: 52 cm x 82 cm; central panel: 103 cm x 82 cm. Thickness: 3 cm. Fully extended: 206 cm x 82 cm. Closed: 103 cm x 82 cm.
Edition of 5.

Figure 8 in Flight was conceived in response to an invitation by L'Empreinte, an association that organizes art events, and Montmorillon, a French town in the Poitou region which is home to several exceptional monuments from the Romanesque and medieval periods. Rather than present an exhibition of photographs, I decided to take the place itself, L'Octogone de Montmorillon, a magnificent and fascinating structure, as my point of departure. I devoted six months to the project; the result is a single work, an altarpiece, displayed during the summer exhibition held from July 1 to Au
gust 31, 2006.

The Octagon
This 12th-century mortuary monument, attached to the Hôtel-Dieu (hospital), no longer serves its original purpose. Still, it retains all of its imaginary connections to death. Without making explicit reference to the Christian symbolism of the figure 8, which is linked to baptism and the resurrection, I left myself open to the sensations evoked by this space, its forms, light, and materials. The octagonal plan and the tall steps - extrados of the vault of the crypt - which form the chapel floor, even the texture of the stone all led me to reflect more deeply on the site itself.


The altarpiece
The format of an altarpiece, a standing polyptych, seemed natural enough: the altar dominates the Octagon as a unique representational space, the ultimate stage for the photographs taken on the site. The walls, here, are not meant to display images. In the past, I have often conceived my photographic works as diptychs or triptychs - for example, the Suite d'Arles, Une fois et pas plus (Just This Once) or Longue distance (Long Distance). Figure Eight in Flight is an actual, articulated altarpiece which one can walk around and view from the back. While it references a pictural form widely used from the 13th to 16th century, it also reflects a tendency to present contemporary art in ways that invite multiple interpretations.


Figure 8 in Flight
Front: Three photographs. Back: lettering in white crayon on a black background.
The altarpiece is structured by three components: the figure 8, the infinity symbol, and the human figure. The association of the first two has intrigued thinkers since Antiquity. The third term is human, the human being who asks questions for which only Art, to my mind, can provide consolation.

The title of the exhibition, Figure 8 in Flight, evokes a figure 8 lying prostrate, as in death. From this angle, the figure signifies infinity and thereby escape the walls; in the same way, its transformation into infinity allows the figure 8 to break free from the inevitable sequence of numbers. Symbol of infinity, snake swallowing its tail (uroburos), life never ending, ever beginning. The surge embodied by the (human) figure in the far right panel.
The white figure 8 and the black infinity symbol are sculptures created for these photographs, from two long ribbons of carbon and fabric. Once again, I have continued work begun in other recent series, which bring together elements of scenery, people and made objects.

The idea of working with bodies in movement led to my collaboration with a dancer: Anne Laurent and I explored sensations and gestures connected with the notions of escape, struggle, and flight.
When viewers walk behind the altarpiece, they see words written over the back of the three panels. Around a central phrase (Escape from the sequence of numbers) other words appear and interfere, creating multiple constructs and possibilities for interpretation.


Notebook of a work in progress
For the exhibition I created a facsimile of my project notebook: plans, drawings, texts, preliminary photographs, montages... which taken together trace the progress of my research and the choices I made, culminating in the definitive work. Among the references, a reader will find the grisaille painted on the back of Hieronymus Bosch's Garden of Earthly Delights; Chris Marker's film, La Jetée (The Pier); and Rilke's Ninth Elegy - works that are beacons in my life.
 
Translation Sheila Mooney