January 23, 2025
Annie Briard
Through the Walls of Gold
Royal Projects
November 16, 2024 - February 8, 2025

Annie Briard
Annie Briard is a Vancouver based artist who explores the intersections of art and science. She examines the visual qualities of light and perception through images of the natural landscape. The works in her exhibition Through the Walls of Gold share a kinship with the California Light and Space artists and though not a sculptor per se, in this installation she enhances her photographs with transparent three-dimensional acrylic elements in a range of colors. The photographs depict desert landscapes and were taken during residencies at the High Desert Test Sites in Joshua Tree, CA.
When thinking about desert colors, muted greens and browns against bright blue skies come to mind, as do pink and orange horizons during sunrise and sunset. In Briard's images, shot with handmade lenses, the colors are distorted. At first glance, the pictures appear to be double exposures or photoshop manipulations. In actuality, they are shot with a camera through lenses fashioned from military prisms that both fracture and reconstitute the landscape. The color-distortion is further exaggerated through the addition of plexiglas overlays that alter the hues of the image, as well as the wall behind it.
In Through Walls of Gold VIII (veils) (all works 2024), a yellow rectangular sheet of plexiglas hangs in front of a portion of the large horizontal wide-angle photographic print. Briard focuses on the close-up details of an expanse of gray rocks, but through her special lenses, the colors of the rocks range from yellow to orange to purple. Similar shifts occur in Through Walls of Gold IV (dawn) where the rocks appear as a gradient of color that moves from a brownish green to a golden yellow-orange. In this modest sized framed photograph, Briard superimposes a vertical strip of smokey acrylic over a portion of the image which adds a three-dimensional aura to the work. For Through Walls of Gold III (green land), Briard transforms a banal photograph of a desert creosote bush into something surreal. The plant grows out of the sand in the lower half of the image, extending up into the sky. Mountains fill the horizon and what might be a blue sky is now a murky yellow-green. A detail of the sand with orange shadows fills the top third, covering a portion of the sky. A fragment of an orange circle also appears in the lower left corner of the image which is bordered by a transparent orange plexiglas mat.
Light mountain (freestanding) is a human scaled triangular pyramid of orange plexiglas on a very low white triangular pedestal. It is centered in the gallery where it bisects the sight lines for viewing the large wall mounted works Through Walls of Gold IX (mirage) and Through Walls of Gold VII (light mountain) adding yet another layer of transparency and distortion. A pale blue plexiglas rectangle that overlaps the upper right portion of the photograph titled Through Walls of Gold V (knowledge) intensifies the sky and alludes to the expanse beyond the picture. Within the photograph, Briard transforms yet another innocuous green-brown desert plant into a saturated bright magenta, orange and yellow.
While it is unclear how much control Briard has over her lenses and the scale of the distortion, these dreamlike landscapes have a lushness and sensuality that is often missing from the work of her male "light and space" counterparts. The images have the aura of an acid trip and while both controlled and unexpected, they take viewers to a different realm. The pieces have a presence and a resonance that goes beyond their formal properties. Briard works with distortion and optical illusion to transform the ordinary into something unexpected.
Through the Walls of Gold
Royal Projects
November 16, 2024 - February 8, 2025

Annie Briard
Annie Briard is a Vancouver based artist who explores the intersections of art and science. She examines the visual qualities of light and perception through images of the natural landscape. The works in her exhibition Through the Walls of Gold share a kinship with the California Light and Space artists and though not a sculptor per se, in this installation she enhances her photographs with transparent three-dimensional acrylic elements in a range of colors. The photographs depict desert landscapes and were taken during residencies at the High Desert Test Sites in Joshua Tree, CA.
When thinking about desert colors, muted greens and browns against bright blue skies come to mind, as do pink and orange horizons during sunrise and sunset. In Briard's images, shot with handmade lenses, the colors are distorted. At first glance, the pictures appear to be double exposures or photoshop manipulations. In actuality, they are shot with a camera through lenses fashioned from military prisms that both fracture and reconstitute the landscape. The color-distortion is further exaggerated through the addition of plexiglas overlays that alter the hues of the image, as well as the wall behind it.
In Through Walls of Gold VIII (veils) (all works 2024), a yellow rectangular sheet of plexiglas hangs in front of a portion of the large horizontal wide-angle photographic print. Briard focuses on the close-up details of an expanse of gray rocks, but through her special lenses, the colors of the rocks range from yellow to orange to purple. Similar shifts occur in Through Walls of Gold IV (dawn) where the rocks appear as a gradient of color that moves from a brownish green to a golden yellow-orange. In this modest sized framed photograph, Briard superimposes a vertical strip of smokey acrylic over a portion of the image which adds a three-dimensional aura to the work. For Through Walls of Gold III (green land), Briard transforms a banal photograph of a desert creosote bush into something surreal. The plant grows out of the sand in the lower half of the image, extending up into the sky. Mountains fill the horizon and what might be a blue sky is now a murky yellow-green. A detail of the sand with orange shadows fills the top third, covering a portion of the sky. A fragment of an orange circle also appears in the lower left corner of the image which is bordered by a transparent orange plexiglas mat.
Light mountain (freestanding) is a human scaled triangular pyramid of orange plexiglas on a very low white triangular pedestal. It is centered in the gallery where it bisects the sight lines for viewing the large wall mounted works Through Walls of Gold IX (mirage) and Through Walls of Gold VII (light mountain) adding yet another layer of transparency and distortion. A pale blue plexiglas rectangle that overlaps the upper right portion of the photograph titled Through Walls of Gold V (knowledge) intensifies the sky and alludes to the expanse beyond the picture. Within the photograph, Briard transforms yet another innocuous green-brown desert plant into a saturated bright magenta, orange and yellow.
While it is unclear how much control Briard has over her lenses and the scale of the distortion, these dreamlike landscapes have a lushness and sensuality that is often missing from the work of her male "light and space" counterparts. The images have the aura of an acid trip and while both controlled and unexpected, they take viewers to a different realm. The pieces have a presence and a resonance that goes beyond their formal properties. Briard works with distortion and optical illusion to transform the ordinary into something unexpected.