Pascal Kern's First French Posthumous Exhibition Explores Photography as Object

Pascal Kern's first exhibition in France since his death in 2007, 'L'Éloge du paradoxe,' showcases photographic works that blur boundaries between painting, sculpture, and photography. The exhibition includes excerpts from his 'Fictions colorées' series (1980s), featuring metal compositions with drawn or painted elements on monochrome backgrounds, as well as close-ups of industrial matrices emphasizing original chromatic richness ('Sculpture'), and views of gourds and their plaster mold impressions finely tinted by impregnation ('Nature'). Kern's images are precise and frontal, yet his work transcends objective capture, probing origins, real or virtual existence, and representation. In the 'Sculpture' diptychs, the matrix embodies potential form; in the 'Nature' triptychs, the object is simultaneously present and absent, volumetric and hollow. Ambiguity between thing and image is heightened by life-size Cibachrome prints and frames of rusted metal or raw wood that mimic the subject. Kern viewed photography itself as an object valued equally by its solids and the voids between frames, where sculpture resided. The exhibition highlights the relevance of Kern's work in the context of photography's expansion and reaction to digital dematerialization.