Catherine Melin's Three-Part Practice at Tourcoing

Catherine Melin's exhibition '36 bis' at the École régionale supérieure d'expression plastique in Tourcoing, France, from 22 November to 13 December 2002, surveys her three interrelated artistic practices: graphite drawings, video, and wall drawings. The drawings, executed with graphite on paper from photographic, video, and camera obscura sources, depict ambiguous peripheral zones—wastelands, deserted urban landscapes—populated by an unusual bestiary (ray, deer, dodo) and figures (children, surveyors, cowboys). They are built through slow filtering, stratification, and interlacing of heterogeneous motifs, with large margins emphasizing framing and format. The videos, recently shown at Crédac in Ivry-sur-Seine, are a source for the graphic work; at Tourcoing, two monitors face each other, granting greater autonomy. They capture children interacting with spaces, diverting them from their original function. The wall drawings, the most recent development, are projected from video and digital images via an episcope, using charcoal and line to stretch across walls and angles, incorporating architectural features. The artist acts as an operator using machines (camera obscura, digital photography software, pantograph, episcope), creating anamorphic distortions that echo urban and industrial no-man's-lands. This presentation precedes Melin's residency in Scotland as part of Villa Médicis Hors les Murs.