Collector I
108 paper moths, pinned like natural history exhibits, covered the back wall of the gallery, whilst a paper climbing rose, several metres long, meandered its way over the adjacent wall. The room was divided by an origami curtain of 1001 cranes, suspended from the ceiling. A found and bought Super 8 film, cut and reconfigured, was projected in the back room.
At first sight, the intricate paper cuts and folded birds are simply beautiful objects, incredibly fragile and delicate. Closer inspection reveals that they are made from pornographic magazines. Similarly, the fractured and repeated film frames being shown in the smaller space soon reveal themselves to be re-mastered pornography; Gallant plays on the repetitive nature of the typical porn film narrative by exaggerating the repetitions.
1001 Cranes, 2004
The show challenges our taboos about erotica - the works sit boldly on public display, but its deceptively decorative nature prevents it from being immediately recognisable: before we know what we are looking at, we are close up and intimate with pornography.
1001 Cranes, 2004
Other, more fragile works are wrapped in tissue paper and compiled in boxed sets, which have to be handled and unwrapped by the individual – a far more traditional way of viewing pornography.
108 Moths, 2004
climbing rose, 2004
climbing rose, 2004
climbing rose, 2004