THIS AND THAT: Le mélange tropical ou la théorie du contour presque transparent.

Master of the skilful ploy, Mathieu Cardin manipulates multiple detours into surprise, ambush and disenchantment. He conceives ecosystems, at times tropical, at times polar that he mockingly constructs and deconstructs with pleasure. His installations are rooted in the landscape tradition of art, yet with derision and ruse he fully grasps their precepts and foundations. If a landscape is an invention that makes visible what lies between the revealed and the concealed, Mathieu Cardin reverses and recreates all the artificial, false and constructed elements that are involved in its production. The viewer then becomes an accomplice who investigates its machinations, its mechanisms being rapidly revealed. In order to do this, he constructs complex compositions that are precarious and misleading. Mathieu Cardin’s work vaguely recalls that of the geo-morphologist who in his laboratory seeks to understand and apprehend the archaeology of earthly formations.

The picturesque is presented side by side with the banal, not antagonistically but in a complimentary way. The backstage is exposed – exhibited even – with all of the hardware necessary for the subterfuge, its elements poised in a fragile balance. Here, a mop and over there, an electrical extension, residual materials that are reminiscent of the artist’s labour or of past exhibitions, carefully amassed and grouped in a corner as if—who knows—they could be used again.

Sales counters, clothing displays and diverse logos are ubiquitous, all serving the profit of business sectors. While some of the decors Mathieu Cardin has orchestrated take on the appearance of a boutique or of an office, their backsides are similar to storage units or an artist’s studio. Several found objects, mundane or practical, are covered with chrome and rendered precious by their new, sparkling appearance. Domesticated, nature is presented as decorative. As such, indoor plants are displayed here and there, and wood prisms appear to be minerals.

Influenced by the seventh art, his first love, Mathieu Cardin’s work is infused with scenography and narrative. This may be why we are aware of him, just underneath the surface, as the director and the producer. Within all these scenarios, only he gets to pull the strings with agility and intention. Between the deceptive and the revelatory, it is indeed difficult to establish whether we are the victims of a hoax or his accomplice to a trick about to be revealed. As Katerina Pansera emphasizes in her writing about Mathieu Cardin, the artist wavers in an ambiguous and troubling way between the schemer and the bearer of truths. In this universe where lies are presented as truth, doubt prevails.

Born in Algoe, USA, Mathieu CARDIN (Matthew), from a very young age, demonstrated exceptional aptitudes in combat sports, gymnastics and theatre. From these early disciplines, he has retained great flexibility and a marvellous uppercut.

While he first was interested in cinema and photography, it was only after a drunken conversation with a forest warden and a pilot that he decided to devout himself to sculpture and installation. He immediately began an MFA in sculpture at NSCAD University where he was accepted, having presented a portfolio of stolen online images. His work wavers between the fake and the real, illusion and reality while manipulating an imagery that blends the cleanliness of Johnson and Johnson™ with the fragmentation of IKEA© furniture.

A PhD candidate in semiotics, Raphaëlle CORMIER currently is attempting to clarify the mysteries of art in a post-internet era. Under the direction of her thesis advisor Marie Fraser, her research explores the concept of the artist as an archivist in the digital era. Her hybrid academic career combines art and design, and she is interested in urban occupation, misappropriation and notions of the flâneur in virtual worlds, the aesthetic of vaporwave and the treasures of the areal web. In 2011, she worked on the Triennale du Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal. She also collaborated with esse arts+opinions magazine and has been a curator for three Chromatic festivals.