Cyprien Gaillard

Nightlife

Cyprien Gaillard

Multidisciplinary artist Cyprien Gaillard blends Cleveland, Los Angeles and Berlin to create a 3D nocturnal wonderland of wild winds and exploding fireworks.

The Lake Arches

Cyprien Gaillard

What begins as an idyllic scene of a summertime dip, ends in painful disillusion. The shallow lake is revealed to be part of an artificial, postmodern concrete environment.

Pruitt-Igoe Falls

Cyprien Gaillard

In this single channel, silent video work, French artist Cyprien Gaillard pairs two shots, both filmed at night. The first captures the demolition of a housing estate building in Sighthill, Glasgow, behind a cemetery. The second features Niagara Falls, lit up with coloured lights. Moving from one 'fall' into another, the mood of Pruitt Igoe Falls is both sublime and entropic.

Ocean II Ocean

Cyprien Gaillard

Subway cars are tossed in the ocean, destined to become an artificial coral reef while fossilised remains of submarine creatures are found within the marble interiors of subway stations in the former Soviet Union. Together, they evoke persistence and petrification, and speak to the radical transformations that occur over time.

Cities of Gold and Mirrors

Cyprien Gaillard

Ciudades de oro y espejos (2009), shot in 16mm in Quintana Roo, is a film consisting of five scenes planned to occur principally in and around the city of Cancún, which was founded in 1970. There, a group of springbreakers; a hotel with dolphins in its pool; a member of the Bloods dancing atop a Mayan archaeological site called El Rey; the demolition of a mirrored building; and the interior of the night club Cocobongo appear one after the other, set to a particular looped recording: Le feu de St. Elme, by Haïm Saban and Shuki Levy. This music is part of the soundtrack to an animated series about Spanish conquistadors, Mysterious Cities of Gold (1982).

Artefacts

Cyprien Gaillard