A photograph can rip away from time a hundred days. This is the principle of the solargraph. The curve of the sun lays its trail on the photosensitive paper. On the surface, the immensity of the world is in motion. The light traces each day in contours the shadows, those of the trees and the insects on the move, those of the buildings and the meteorological accidents. It will take several months for the developing organisms to build their microscopic cities. The paper is finally extracted from its habitat; a can hanging from a window or a branch. The photograph owes its immortality on screen to the radiations of the scanner, which have come at the same time to end the cycle of its life. The proof by the picture does not exist because it has the defect of being alive, which arouses in Quentin Lacombe an indelible fascination. Among the chaos of organic materials and patterns of ultra-urbanization, the series of photographs «Crucible of time» crystallizes this state on the border of collapse. The title is taken from the eponymous book «The Crucible of Time» (Brunner, 1984). The author tells the story of this star whose trajectory crosses a turbulent interstellar space, cluttered with dust, meteors and wandering planetoids, and whose inhabitants are preparing to die or to survive. Through his photographic processes, from long exposure to the use of the image’s only negative, Quentin Lacombe makes each print a time capsule whose atmosphere illustrates the loss of control over our environment.
Crucible of Time is based on the reinterpretation of the myth of the Ark in the current context of global crises (pandemic, climate). At a time when mankind seems to be losing control over its environment, the question of what we can save arises. If we have to choose, what would be the method that would guide these choices? Like the thinking behind the photographic atlases, Crucible of Time gathers fragments of the world in a so-called photographic ark, a «time capsule», an «interstellar bottle to the sea» intended for terrestrial and extraterrestrial viewers.
This work is articulated around a documentary practice and an experimental work with the photographic medium. Several layers of time are superimposed. Images taken in March 2020, at the height of the pandemic in South Korea, are confronted with solargraph that reveal the changes in the trajectory of the sun’s path over the course of successive confinements.
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SELECTED EXHIBITIONS 2021-2023
38th Festival of fashion, accessory and photography, Hyeres / UNFRAMED at DA Z, Zurich / TULCA Festival, Galeway / Le Consulat, Paris / Gallery Godin, Paris / Swiss Design Award, Basel / ALT+1000, La Brévine
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AWARDS 2021-2023
Finalist 38th festival of fashion, accessory and photography, Hyeres / Swiss Design Awards, Swiss Federal Office of Culture
Crucible of time project