By using an older form of technology, French artist Éric Antoine strips
away modern-day conceits in the quest for simplicity, solitude, and core
truths. The works speak to the passage of time but also to a sense of
timelessness. Useful Lies brings together several series among the
last he produced. Aside from a single cardboard box in Les Intrus--a
series that highlights the human body and the fragility of
shelter--nothing in the photographs dates them. And yet, his framing and
cropping are entirely modern, subverting any suggestion of nostalgia.
These are not attempts to replicate nineteenth-century photographs but
rather forays into uncharted territory that use the past to draft new
stories.#11;
The collodion process also helps visually convey the feeling of being
caught between two forces: the drive toward perfection and the desire to
embrace flaws. More specifically, Antoine is drawn both to German New
Objectivity of the 1920s, with its rejection of Expressionism, and to
the movement known as pictorialism. His medium dovetails with his
interest in New Objectivity by allowing for great precision and very
fine detail. At the same time, the process is highly pictorial in that
the artist essentially paints the glass plate with a sensitive coating,
which pools and drips and must be controlled. This tension between
exactitude and imperfection opens up the works, creating scenes that are
both true to nature and evocative of their own realities.#11;
