Exhibition Review: Photography | Brian Rope
The Daylight Moon |
Francis Cai
M16 Artspace | 19 April
– 12 May 2024
Francis Cai, a fine art photographer and xR (Extended Reality) film director, is 25 years old and based in Sydney. He graduated from Whitecliffe College of Arts and Design with a Bachelor of Fine Arts and from the University of Sydney with a Master of Moving Image. After graduating, he co-founded Studio 13 Sydney and extended his practice by participating in residency programs in France and New York City.
Cai's recent post-pandemic era photographs frequently highlight strange landscapes and growing self-awareness. In the uncertain times he has experienced, he aims to sensitively examine differences in various living environments and cultures.
The Daylight Moon series artworks exhibited here are intended “to conjure up a spacetime to accommodate unattainable and unchangeable elements in reality.” Thus, it is evident that these pieces of art belong to the hyperrealist movement, which enhances reality in order to produce illusions. Visitors would have trouble telling the difference between reality and a simulation of reality in most of the displayed images. The artist has thus achieved success.
There are seventeen high quality black and white archival framed inkjet prints of various sizes, all on Hahnemühle FineArt paper, plus a single one-minute digital video titled Aphelios I. From the Greek, Aphelios means Away from Helios. Away from the Sun. Little hints about the exhibits contents can be found in this title and the prints' titles. But each visitor's interpretation of each piece of art is essentially their own challenge, and it's likely that many will see different things and take different interpretations.
Certain scenes appear bigger, more significant, better, or worse than they actually are. They have an odd, enigmatic quality that is a little unsettling. For some viewers, emotionally charged thoughts, feelings, memories, and impulses may even be triggered by unexpected connections between seemingly unrelated elements within the images. Our imaginations will run wild, and we will see fantasies. I thought of the frequently tumultuous clamour we witness in our parliaments. Additionally, I was reminded that we frequently hear nowadays about people being misled by dishonest, cunning, manipulative social media users.
And that's precisely what Cai aims to accomplish by utilizing clips and images to create a fantasy world that defies time and space through a non-linear, fractured sequence of visual excerpts that evoke emotional shortcuts. He digitally manipulates black and white film negatives. Aberrant connections have given rise to deceptive states, like those we might imagine or encounter in our dreams. His entire endeavour is an exploration of the tainted connection between subjectivity and documentation.
In the print titled Awakening Moment, I certainly saw part of a feminine face , including an eye and slightly open lips. I expect you would too. But what else do you see? What emotion do you feel? For you, how do documentation and subjectivity connect in this artwork?
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| Awakening Moment, 2022 © Francis Cai |
Likewise, Sunflower clearly includes some petals that shout sunflower. But what are the other elements about, what do they say to your imagination?
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| Sunflower, 2022 © Francis Cai |
Sundial Dreams is a more complex image. There are a considerably greater number of elements within the frame, much detail to examine if you are drawn to do so, sharp areas as well as blurred or soft-focus spaces.
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| Sundial Dreams, 2022 © Francis Cai |
Similarly, Under the Dome, has many elements for our eyes to explore and our imaginations to browse.
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| Under the Dome, 2023 © Francis Cai |
In Time Reflection I saw simplicity. The reflection of
something – whatever you want it to be – and the outlined shapes on the reflecting
surface are simply that – a reflection and shapes. However, we still can, and
should, look beyond this documentation and subjectively seek our own
connections to it.
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| Time Reflection, 2022 © Francis Cai |
If unable to visit the exhibition the other works can be viewed here.
This review is also available on the author's blog here.
