“Sea levels will rise, experts warn, and it’s not going to stop.”
—LA Times, August 27, 2015
The sea level can be used as a supposedly stable reference to measure altitude, but, in reality, it is a fluctuating point of reference as its value varies with time and space. While sea level fluctuations often hit newspaper headlines, raising alarm of coastal areas being submerged, they remind us above all of the elusive nature of any point of origin. More than just the coast, rising water levels engulf any claim for the ‘original’.
The fluidity of shapes and their inevitably temporary nature are central to the new paintings presented by Jean-Baptiste Bernadet, partnered with sculptures by Benoît Platéus. Initiated during a residency in Los Angeles during the spring of 2015, Bernadet’s Black Paintings reintroduce the artist’s earlier use of the color black. While the title of the series refers to Ad Reinhardt’s black monochromes, Bernadet’s paintings function…