February 25 – April 11, 2021
Artist tours: Sunday, March 14 at 2 pm and 3 pm
All visitors must pre-book preferred tour timeslot on Eventbrite.
Free admission. Presented in English.
Please check the latest Ottawa Public Health safety guidelines prior to your visit.
Neeko Paluzzi, The little prince, 2020, 2020, pigment ink on adhesive vinyl, variable dimensions, courtesy of the artist
Neeko Paluzzi, The view from my childhood window, 2019, pigment ink on adhesive vinyl, variable dimensions, courtesy of the artist
To create the characters in The little prince, Paluzzi’s body was 3D-scanned by one hundred and thirty cameras. The digital textures of his skin were then manipulated and morphed into the seven characters. Once the figures were finished digitally, they were 3D-printed in sandstone and photographed in Paluzzi’s studio. These figures reference the illustrations in The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, which features a young boy exploring the universe. Along the way he meets narrow-minded adults and discovers that wisdom does not come with age.
Much older than the little prince, Paluzzi is simultaneously the narrator of his own story – though an unreliable one – and a character whom he controls. The act of using his own body as a vessel throughout the exhibition, and then manipulating it, emphasizes this duality. He has fictionalized himself by creating doppelgängers in an attempt to confront, categorize, and conquer troubling aspects of his own reality. Much older than the little prince, Paluzzi is simultaneously the narrator of his own story – though an unreliable one – and a character whom he controls. The act of using his own body as a vessel throughout the exhibition, and then manipulating it, emphasizes this duality. He has fictionalized himself by creating doppelgängers in an attempt to confront, categorize, and conquer troubling aspects of his own reality.
- Exhibition booklet excerpt by Neeko Paluzzi
Biography
Neeko Paluzzi is a queer, Canadian artist and educator whose practice focuses on intertextual, photo-based installations. His images blend the possibilities of traditional, analogue darkroom processes with contemporary photographic techniques, such as 3D scanning and printing. He was the winner of the 2018 Project X, Photography Award from the Ottawa Arts Council, and his work appeared in a featured exhibition at the Scotiabank CONTACT Festival in 2019. Paluzzi is currently completing a Masters of Fine Arts at the University of Ottawa while maintaining a teaching position at the Official Languages and Bilingualism Institute.
Neeko Paluzzi gratefully acknowledges the financial support of the Ontario Arts Council and the Project X, Photography Award.
