Colette Girard’s series of photographs, titled “A Unique View of the Ordinary World,” is inspired by Miksang, a type of photography that focuses on capturing the richness in the world around us. Based on this idea, her photographs are taken impulsively when she sees a captivating pattern, without putting too much forethought into the subject.
Her distinctive pieces capture quotidian objects’ subtleties, without revealing the nature of what viewers are seeing, which creates an opportunity for personal interpretation and potential discovery. Girard demonstrates artistic skill by using a variety of techniques that transform the viewer’s lens from piece to piece, inviting a new perspective of everyday forms and moments.
Unique angles prompt the viewer to contemplate his or her spatial relationship to the ambiguous images, while vibrant colors simultaneously distract from the limiting idea that the arrangements must take on concrete meaning, allowing her work to venture into abstract territory. Her use of color and motion lends her photographs a paint-like quality, which also makes the inanimate objects seem to come alive, as is the case in her pieces “Ribbons” and “Jasper.”
The photographs play with light, emphasizing the contrast between light and dark shadows, which build on the painting-like quality. Girard employs the use of lines to highlight divisions and asymmetry, as can be observed in her photograph, “Blinded.”
Another defining element of several of her pieces is distortion. Her piece, “Chocolate Kisses” is a brilliant example of this, where she uses the preexisting curve of a chocolate kiss to reflect drops of water, which creates an eccentric effect and brings attention to minute details.
The exhibit encourages individual reflection and ultimately urges one to cultivate an inner consciousness and precise awareness of the ordinary, while igniting a feeling of curiosity that can translate to spectators’ own lives.
Colette Girard’s exhibit is currently hanging in the Class of 1925 Gallery in Memorial Union, and will be available until October 10.
