Happy Birthday
January 21 - February 17, 2001
From January 20 to February 17, Galerie Trois Points will present for the first time the work of Clint Griffin.
Based in Toronto for a few years, Griffin created his own universe by collecting photographs deemed by their owners to be of no interest. These clichés devoid of artistic value are dissected by the artist: he tears them, cuts them into fragments, glues them, sews them to the machine, draws them or paints them to make them more suggestive than realistic compositions. Griffin removes the face of the portraits found, sometimes scratches the photographic emulsion around the figures which are thus released from their initial context. The individual and private characters of the photographs being erased, the ideas and the memories, as well those of the artist as of the spectator, can project themselves there freely.
Here, clichés taken at birthdays inspire Griffin various visions where he staged with people he meets or knew in the old days. These fictional scenarios give rise to a host of emotions, transforming the experience of creation into a daily reverie that he does not want to awaken.