Dominique Blais's Solaris at Transpalette, Bourges

At Transpalette in Bourges, Dominique Blais's exhibition Solaris (March 11 – May 7, 2011) explores the process of image emergence through three works: Palinopsie, Fade Out, and Solaris (2011). These pieces engage ambiguously with photography, treating the darkroom, light box, silver salts, and projector as vestiges of new forms where image is a perceptual phenomenon. Palinopsie features lightning images intermittently triggered by a strobe inside a dark box on the floor. Fade Out comprises twelve serigraphs mounted directly on the wall, subjected to solarization, creating gradations of silver inking that produce effects of erasure and appearance. Solaris uses a projector to replay the sun's course under a skylight in condensed time, mirroring the original skylight. The image in Fade Out is initially difficult to decipher but retrospectively reveals a photograph taken by the artist of the skylight before its transformation into an image factory. The exhibition, echoing palinopsia—a visual disorder of abnormal image persistence—subjects viewers to a visual and temporal test where moving images linger on the retina. The show follows an artist residency.