In producing what is essentially photographic work, which may at times take the form of sculptural objects, whose subject is the human body, with Voices of Reason / Voices of Madness Geneviève Cadieux has cleverly achieved certain shifts with regard to issues of the photographic and the filmic understood as trace, imprint and reinstatement of the body captured by cameras. Cinematographic and sculptural dimensions are already present in certain photographic works, especially by virtue of their scale and placement, but the installation here includes this new distinctive feature that occurs in all the artist's work – the incorporation of time. More accurately put, the ability to experiment with the passage of a period of time. Contrary to all appearances, Voices of Reason / Voices of Madness does not, however, develop within a filmic and narrative time frame, even if these aspects are clearly evoked, because, from a strictly material viewpoint, the installation is made up solely of still photographs. In a room plunged into semi-darkness, two huge photographic projections of two women's faces are set opposite one another. One of the faces, taken head-on, presents a peaceful physiognomy, with no particular expression, and seems to be looking at the other face, opposite. The latter, for its part, expresses pain, both physical and mental, like a restrained scream, or a scream about to burst out. While the first projection remains absolutely static, the second appears to be slowly changing, gradually becoming blurred, until the initial face can no longer be seen. This, quite simply, is a moving projection of the same image, whose focus is deliberately off-kilter, thereby taking the face apart, and deforming it in order to reduce it to nothingness. Now and then a loud noise can be heard, a sort of quick kettledrum beat, which takes the viewer by surprise as they contemplate the piece and contradicts the flow of time which bears them along. The work's title offers a hint about the possible meanings to be read into the two faces, one expressing reason, the other madness, be it fleeting or permanent. The suffering visibly expressed by the second face might be associated with one of those states that are so psychologically painful that the human being loses all sense of reason, is no longer himself, and can quite literally come undone. The slow elision of the face in the gradual dissolve as seen by the second face might also be seen no longer as two people but just one caught in a state of torment and simultaneously becoming aware of his/her madness. Situated between these two states, between two bodies and at least two possible meanings, viewers can read in this installation a metaphor of their own presence – with the deafening drumbeat acting as an abrupt reminder – and their attitude with regard to these faces. They are well aware that madness is the fruit of dreams, and that such dreams have their own logic; they also know that it is possible, at any given moment, to topple over into the point of no return, into the disappearance of oneself.

Jacinto Lageira

Translated by Simon Pleasance