Philippe Boissonnet's artistic career began with the creation of large drawings and transfers depicting bodies in reconstruction, and between appearance and disappearance. Through this practice of Copy-Body-Art and drawing, he questioned both the limits of our perception of reality and the inevitable elusiveness of the body. Then, in the 90s, he pushed his questioning of the fragility of our representations of the body towards that of the world, by confronting them with the holographic image, spatialized in installations. This is how the "body of the public enters the scene ... while the body of the real world meets that of the work." (Isabelle Pichet, 2023).

SAISIR L’INSAISISSABLE
2023

Photo and video works. Luminous projections done from dichroïc films. Photo and video works. Various dimensions and printing material.

ARTIST HOLO MEMORIES
2018

Glass, rainbow transmission holographic film, steel (edition: 4/4). 30 x 29 cm (hologram) - 100 x 55 x 30 cm (structure)

This luminous sculptural work combines the digital imagery of a neural network, as a representation for imagination and intelligence activities, with the painter's classic accessories, and somepurely luminous colors. It deals with the idea that it’s always the brain of the viewer. which does the artwork. Mise en abyme of the subjectivity of the viewer into that of the artist.

Produced with the support of Atelier Holographique de Paris. Aknowledgments to Pascal Gauchet, Vanessa Siffredi (EPF, Lausanne), Silvia Opertino (Université de Genève) et Rachel Brabant (UQTR, Trois-Rivières)

INSIDE-OUT (Sens-dessus-dessous)
2019 (Triptyque)

3 framed holomontages ( Denisyuk reflexion hologram + Copy Art prints mounted on plexiglass).

Montage of holographic images in orthoscopic perspective (normal), and in pseudoscopic inversion. Difference and similarity, convexity and concavity are visually interconnected : two visions of the same world-object oppose each other and combine in a perceptual uncertainty . Stone or planet ?. Spatial ambiguities, and contrasting relationships between 2D and 3D, help to make us feel the stumbles of contemporary tensions in world (Asia, Europe and the Americas are in sight).

The holograms of the stone have been realized at Holographic North Lab (Burlington, VT) in 2013 and the cartographic prints have been printed first on Canon copier at the MIDE (Cuenca , Espagne) in 1992. Final concept and montage done in 2019

Holomontages: 56,5 x 39,5 cm (with frame)

WHAT YOU SEE MAY NOT BE WHAT YOU SEE (Holo-Helmet)
2018

Installation/performance. Presented at Gallery R3 (Trois-Rivières), june 21rst 2018 within the project : Co/Create_Espaces partagés

Glass, holographic gratings films (HOE), helmet, DEL forehead light & terrestrial globe
30 x 30 x 115 cm (glass structure)

I built this archaic-looking "pseudo-holovision helmet" out of a mirror frame, a bicycle helmet, a headlamp and a piece of holographic diffraction film. You see nothing through it but colorful rainbow diffraction effects superimposed on the real world. No projection, no film, although the imagination of the common spectator can easily think so. It is therefore a performative object, like a portable and technopoetic sculpture that can also be experienced by the viewer.

PERSPICERE
2018

Engraved glass, rainbow hologram (WLT), steel
45 x 30,5 cm (hologram) - 68 x 53 x 40 cm (structure)

“Perspicere" is a holographic sculpture that physically and conceptually explores the act of seeing through... It puts into perspective the thought that seeks to see clearly, to discern the transparency from opacity, the presence from absence. And the holographic image, with its spatialized colors and ambiguous perceptions, hardly sheds any light on the matter. The seing-through-vision is stopped by the power of light.

Exhibited at Galerie d'art du Parc (Trois-Rivières). Red the online article by Louise Boisclair in ARCHÉE (july 2019) Transparence/Transparaître: une triple exposition qui nous regarde

LA CONSCIENCE DES LIMITES (DÉDALE)

The Awareness of Limits (Dedalus)
2013

One transmission holograms on Plexiglass, steel structure, LED strips (white-blue)
228 x 228 x 228 cm (82 x 82 cm each hologram). Technical support: Harris Kagan (OSU Pulse Laser Lab) and John Perry (Holographics North Lab).

The hologramme is a sphere (terrestrial globe) depicted as a pseudoscopic perspective within a regular orthoscopic image of the globe. The gaze is faced with a labyrinthine and paradoxical perception, where the distant is embedded in the near, and where the outside of the sphere is inverted into a disturbing view from within. But where is the center? In us, perhaps…

NULLE PART / Nowhere
2013

Engraved glass, two LED strips (green, red) and wooden brackets
75 x 75 cm (glass)

(Photo credits: Guy Samson)

UN MONDE D'INCERTITUDE

A World of Uncertainty
2008

Two transmission holograms (WLT), black Plexiglass bowls and digital photography printed on styrene
365 x 127 x 45 cm

Two holograms placed in black bowls represent the southern hemisphere of the terrestrial globe (a geopolitical inflatable balloon). The + (plus) and – (minus) signs have been engraved on the surface of each of the holograms. These then act as imaginary receptacles for our preconceived ideas. The viewer is placed in the “view from above” position, referring to the satellites, while the work is on the ground, at our feet.

EFFLORESCENCE
2002

Two transmission holograms (WLT), mirrors, aluminum, black Plexiglass, two CD players, mini-speakers, photoelectric sensors, laser diodes and electronic microcontroller
Installation: approx. 600 x 600 cm

Technical support: Pierre olivier (electronic), Dan Schweitzer (New York Holocenter) and John Perry (Holographics North Lab)

Collection of the Fondation du Musée d’art contemporain des Laurentides, Saint-Jérôme, Qc

UN MONDE NOUVEAU
2001

Installation using water and light to reveal itself to our aesthetic perception. Two half-spheres in black Plexiglass, engraved glasses, water, two motors and solar sensors (projectors or sun). Engraved phrase (Blaise Pascal): “The center is everywhere, the circumference nowhere”.

Black Plexiglass bowls, engraved glass, water, two electrical engines and solar sensors (with light projectors or sun)
80 x 40 x 40 cm each element

Technical support: Pierre Olivier (electronic)

JE/TU

I/You, 2000

Four reflection holograms on Plexiglass, pillows and sheet
220 x 220 cm, ed. 2/2

Technical support: Cégep de Maisonneuve Holography studio, Montréal, Qc

Collection of the Fondation Danae Art Actuel, Oviedo, France/Spain

RECARTOGRAPHIER SON MONDE

To Recartography Own's World
1992-2000

Transmission hologram (WLT) and 100 laser prints* mounted on Permaflex
Approx. 180 x 180 cm. Technical support: Gérard Allon (Pulse laser lab, Montraeal), John Perry (Holographic North, Burlington, VT), and MIDE artist-in-residency program (copier-art prints, Cuenca, Spain).

Going around the world with a balloon, ironically with an inflatable terrestrial globe (geopolitical and transparent) that I conscientiously flattened on the window of a photocopier, from all angles and meridians, in order to produce images looking like the echographies of a fetus. It was at this moment that the idea of ​​a fragile Earth-Child was born, replacing the mythical Earth-Mother in our collective unconscious.

IN BETWEEN (Interstices)
1997

"In-Between (interstices) is a work designed to facilitate interaction and cooperation between the individual spectators. In this way, it can be said that this particular work more than any other helps the Spectator realize that he or she is the real content of the artform that the installation is …" (Louise Poissant, in Entre lumière et ombre. In-Between exhibition booklet. 1999, Translation by R. Patrick Boissonnault)

Three transmission holograms (WLT), steel, halogen lamps and LED strips, electronic lighting control unit and three ultrasonic motion detectors
1000 x 1000 x 200 cm (each hologram: 110 x 110 cm)

Technical support: Pierre Olivier (electronic) et John Perry (Holographics North Lab)

LA CONSCIENCE DES LIMITES (GALILEO)

The Awareness of Limits (Galileo)
1993

One stereographic hologram (oval), two HOE holograms (cylinders), Plexiglass, easels, electronic lighting control with ultrasonic motion detector
Approx. 500 x  300 x 185 cm, ed. 2/2

Technical support: Guy Marsden (electronic) and John Perry (holography)

LA CONSCIENCE DES LIMITES (GAÏA)

The Awareness of Limits (Gaïa)
1992

"La conscience des limites (Gaïa) refers to the Earth Goddess and scrambles in turn the images and ideas; The eye wanders and […] combines the monumentality of structure […] with the derision of holographic images of an inflatable ball; evoking that same terrestrial globe living its suspended sentence, where we build all our dreams and project the epic as well as the utopias of our future." (Hervé Fischer, in Philippe Boissonnet, Artist of Uncertainty. Catalogue: Philippe Boissonnet, La Base, France, 1993. Translation by Lucille Nelson).

In this installation, the interactive, sculptural and visual experience of vanishing images outlined the symbolic and epistemological reversal that humans have nowdays with our planet Earth : no longer Mother Earth, but rather Child Earth.

Eight holograms (WLT) mounted on Plexiglass, steel, wood, lead sheet, infrared motion detector, lighting electronic control unit
330 x 360 x 180 cm (holograms: 70 x 61 cm)

Aknowledgments to Canada Arts Council, and to Pierre Olivier (electronics), Gérard Allon Pulse Laser Lab (Montréal) and John Perry (Holographics North, Burlington)

DE PROFUNDIS (or The Artist Remediation)
1990

Questionning the transversal artistic relationships between holography and the other medias: painting, sculpture and photography. As well as this piece is exploring the peceptual strategies that can be developed to enhance the typical holographic aesthetic within the real space (and not only on the wall as for classical painting or photography). This art piece, as its title makes feel, is focused on the place of the artist and its social identity in a new technologies environment. Is he/she still alive ?

Two transmission holograms (WLT), seven tripods, Plexiglass and white paint
Approx. 350 x 400 x 180 cm

Technical support: Fringe Research Holographic Lab (Toronto) and Holographics North Lab (Burlington)

PEINDRE OU NE PAS PEINDRE?

To Paint or not to Paint?
1989

Transmission hologram, wooden frame, easel and pigments on canvas
200 x 240 x 180 cm, ed. 2/2

Technical support: Fringe Research Holographic Lab (Toronto) and Holographics North Lab (Burlington)

GREAT CLASSICAL NUDE
1988

Reflection hologram on glass (WLR) and charcoal/photocopy transfers on cardboard. An artwork that do links in-between different models and reproduction means, though a first model that is a reproduction of the Venus de Milo. Hologram has been prioducedfrom a plaster cast (of a real bust) meanwhile the far left image is from a direct body-copy-art production of another female model. The piece is questionning the idea of original by emphasizing and confusing different sources of female figure.
40 x 122 cm

Technical support:  Fringe Research Holographic Lab (Toronto)

L'OMBRE D'UN DOUTE

The Shadow of a Doubt
1987

“The obvious kinship between holograms and hallucination, or mirage, have led Boissonnet to a theoretical reflection about the philosophical and literary tradition of the Double in relation to the image of the body” (Frank Popper, in L’art à l’âge électronique, Paris : Hazan, 1993)

Six holograms (WLR & WLT) on glass, Plexiglass and acrylic/pastels on three cotton canvases
Approx. 10 x 10 metres  (hologram: 30 x 40 cm)

Technical support: Fringe Research Holographic Lab (Toronto)

REGARD HOLISTIQUE

Holistic Gaze
1984

Reflection hologram on glass (WLR)
21 x 26 cm, ed. 6/6

Technical support: Fringe Research Holographic Lab (Toronto)

Collection of the Interference Hologram Gallery, Toronto, On