Louis Joncas

Detritus 4 (2003)

"These are not still lives of flowers and fresh fruit; quite the opposite. These are images of the banana peels and apple cores after the fruit has been consumed. In fact, these are images of everything Joncas has consumed over the past few years: food, cigarettes, drugs, medicine - and men. Joncas says this intense scrutiny places him in a decidedly vulnerable position. Everything is on view, from my addictions to my sexuality to my pastimes, what I consume and what I need to consume.Detritus is informed in large part by Joncas' fascination with vanitas, a genre of 16th and 17th century still life painting consisting of objects that symbolize the fugitive nature of human life and pursuit of pleasure. While Detritus is faithful to the idea of vanitas, it is made for a 21st-century reality. The symbolism is more contemporary but the message remains the same: the passage of time, our experiences, our luxuries are all in vain, says Joncas. A bright red food tray serves as a receptacle for used condoms and empty vials of the drug Special K, remnants of a circuit party weekend; a sunshine yellow tray becomes a coroner's table for a mutilated GI Joe doll, a victim of his dog's insatiable chewing. The photographs are grotesque and gorgeous. Greasy black peels and egg shells, plastic food wrap and cigarette butts, half-eaten noodles and a NicoDerm box, a pile of dog hair - all are retrieved from the dustbin and elevated to the gallery wall. In many ways the whole body of work goes against all of the conventions of photography, the whole abject side of it. The hair, the dust balls, they are just so anti-photography, they are the enemy. You are always trying to avoid hair and dust and here I am making them larger than life."

Text taken from: Xtra