Light My Fiction

Pascal Grandmaison's recent work, characterized by its spareness, rigour and feeling of detachment, reflects on how the "state-of-the art" soon turns obsolete. This video juxtaposes images of halted, tarnished rides at the Coney Island amusement park in New York with macroscopic views of the inside of outmoded video-game consoles, such as the Sony Playstation and Atari 2600. The artist's slow-motion shots highlight the architecture of these objects while amplifying the dust, dirt and grime that coats them, giving each the nostalgic air of being simultaneously made of space-age technology and lying in waste as a relic. The video functions as a vanitas for things of the past, a meditation on our fascination with the new, and our tendency to forget that which has come before.