Staring at the sun calls up the old adage, inviting viewers to risk blindness by prolonging their gaze. In a dark room, an enigmatic projection appears on a wall. As the dome-shaped projection moves through the chromatic spectrum of visible light, the device triggers an unexpectedly complex psycho-emotional phenomenon. The installation is supported by low-frequency ambient audio, which Briard has specifically designed to arouse somatic responses, using a frequency discovered by NASA that is often associated with paranormal apparitions because it causes the iris to vibrate, potentially provoking visual hallucinations. Contributing to the immersive experience is a theta rhythm, which is used in neurological research to activate organic visual functions. The device produces lingering images, illusions of movement and chimeric colours in the spectators’ minds. Briard blurs the line between the tangible and the imaginary, drawing our attention to the conjectural instability of perception.
Supported by the BC Arts Council, the Canada Council for the Arts, and Manif d’Art biennale de Québec.
Annie Briard (BFA, MFA) is a Canadian artist known for her practice in expanded photography and digital media. With beginnings in Montreal and now working from the Pacific North-West, her works connect aesthetics steeped in affect theory, photo conceptualism, and the light and space movement rooted in California. Triangulating between these interdisciplinary modalities, her artworks evidence a dialogue with each movement’s key concerns. Through moving images, media installations, expanded and print photography, Briard challenges how we make sense of the world and of each other through visual perception, emphasizing paradigms across the fields of ecology, psychology and neuroscience.
Briard’s works have been presented in numerous solo exhibitions, including at Royale Projects in Los Angeles (2024), at the Quebec Biennale (2022), at Monica Reyes Gallery (2022) and at the Burrard Arts Foundation in Vancouver (2021) ; at AC Institute in New York (2019), and Joyce Yahouda Gallery in Montréal, as well as group shows, festivals and fairs internationally at the Three Shadows Photography Centre (Beijing), the Lincoln Film Centre (New York), Matadero Madrid, the Switzerland Architecture Museum (Basel), among many others. Recently, she presented monumental scale public art projects for a number of commissions in Canada including for the Vancouver Art Gallery, the New Westminster Museum, and major architectural integration projects. She has been artist-in-residence at High Desert Test sites in California, SIM in Iceland, the Banff Centre for the Arts, among others in Europe and the US. Annie Briard has received awards from the Canada Council for the Arts, the British Columbia Arts Council and the Social Science and Humanities Research Council of Canada, and her works are found in public and corporate collections including those of the Art Bank of Canada, Microsoft, Scotiabank, TD Bank and Caisse de Dépôt et Placement du Québec.
Briard is a Lecturer in photography and media arts at Emily Carr University of Art + Design, on the ancestral territories of the Coast Salish peoples including the Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh nations.