Visibility is overrated, like fame. 

The perfection of an image making an appearance or of a body moving in space is only completed with the final revelation that maybe the room is better without the art, or maybe the scene is better without the actor. The trick is to make the unavoidable appearance, accumulate the inevitable fame (or infamy) but never leave a trace. With the exhibition, denislavant, the intention is to paint the paintings, dance the dances but program into the work an amnesia that will reverse the dangerous effects of accumulation, that will build an experience without any buildup, just some slight residue of a fast passing obsession. 

Throughout Menagerie de Verre I painted portraits of Denis Lavant ranging in scale from enormous to tiny using a black-light white medium. These murals are completely invisible in normal room light. I programmed the lights of the entire building to slowly shift from white to black light revealing the images painted on the wall. The viewers could walk freely through the space to find the Denis Lavant portraits. At the end of the exhibition time each evening the viewers were guided into a small room where they watched the live re-creation of the last scene from Claire Denis’ Beau Travail in which Denis Lavant dances in a disco. For this I made a replica of the set and learned the choreography and, costumed as Denis Lavant, executed the dance.