This book was co-published in 1998 by the Contemporary Art Gallery; and Artspeak on the occasion of the exhibition, *French Kiss* at the Contemporary Art Gallery, December 13, 1997 – January 31, 1998. The publication includes work by artists Ghada Amer, Jean-Sylvain Bieth, Bernard Lallemand, Dany Leriche and Patrick Raynaud.

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French Kiss

Dany Leriche

Patrick Raynaud

Jean-Sylvain Bieth

Bernard Lallemand

Ghada Amer

The Contemporary Art Gallery and Artspeak Gallery are pleased to present an exhibition that brings five artists from France to Vancouver. In their artwork, these artists move between the terrain of aesthetics and sexual content. While researching this exhibition, it became evident that sexual content in visual art is not widely promoted, addressed or even accepted by many French critics and curators. This is somewhat of a paradox in light of the ubiquity of sexual references and imagery in French film and advertising.

The artists in this exhibition are each clearly concerned with the aesthetic and material aspects of their work, however, underlying these considerations is an exploration in representing sexuality on a psycho/social level. Ghada Amer makes what appear to be lyrical abstract patterns delicately embroidered onto canvas, but these patterns are in reality representations of women in graphic sexual acts that confuse the relationship between high and low culture, between women's work and pleasure. Jean-Sylvain Bieth presents a multimedia installation with references to sexual desire, but it is also a place of solitude and suffering. Bernard Lallemand employs the materials and surfaces of the hospital to make pristine minimalist objects, but their shapes, often erogenous yet devoid of a body, refer to service and constraint, like strange objects of bondage or ritual. Dany Leriche meticulously re-stages famous paintings to create large allegorical photographs, but the central figures are all women whose nudity is confrontational and challenges the role of the viewer's gaze. Patrick Raynaud presents nude figures illuminated by the seductive surface of back-lit transparencies, framed in various coffin-like casings these bodies hover at the edge of eroticism and death.

At Artspeak Gallery: Dany Leriche and Patrick Raynaud.
At the Contemporary Art Gallery: Ghada Amer, Jean-Sylvain Bieth and Bernard Lallemand.

This exhibition has been funded by the Association Française d'Action Artistique, and the Consulate General of France in Vancouver.



A low wooden bed frame is placed on the gallery floor, on which a silver kids crown sits. A set of white mortar and pestle and 14 oyster shells are placed on the floor next to the bed.

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Two sets of a white tube and a bag, resembling airplane oxygen masks, are hanging from the gallery ceiling. Behind them, various combinations of medical tools are displayed on the wall.

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Tall wooden shelves, which one would expect to see in a pantry, are built in the gallery. On the wall behind the shelves, a topless woman’s painting is mounted above a small pile of dirt on the floor.

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Four large drawings are installed on the gallery wall. On their identically-sized rectangle canvases, some abstract line drawings are made in various colours.  

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A corner of the gallery is painted in black. An old yellow blanket is hung at the end of the black-painted area. A low wooden bed frame with a black matless is placed in front of those black walls. 

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This is a side view of a separation wall in the gallery, to which wooden pantry shelves are attached. A ladder is leaning against the shelves, and some cans and bins are placed on the shelves.

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A small gold painting, foregrounded by a silver skull, is mounted on the gallery wall. A small hole is made on the wall beneath where the painting is hung. A dirt pile is on the floor under the hole.

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This is a close-up view of the drawing piece installed on the galley wall. On the rectangle canvas, various coloured lines create abstract figures over the repeated face of a woman with long hair. 

French Kiss

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