Medar
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Goma by Alex Black Studio & Medar, Paris, 2024
Goma8x10, Gelatin Silver Prints
Men in Gear, Montréal/Paris, 2020-2024
When I first encountered John in the street; his presence immediately striked my attention. I reached out, introducing myself as a student interested in starting a project, though at that stage, I didn’t know yet what it would truly become. I began photographing him, inspired by a blend of vintage queer imagery and a fascination with his look and strong appeal. Over the years, John has continued to collaborate on various of my projects, contributing to my vision and deepening the bond between us.
Each photograph was created with the same intent: to capture something raw and experiential, a personal journey of discovery that adapts with every new subject I meet. Reflecting on these images, I’m aware of how central intimacy and relational dynamics are to my process. Men in Gear evolved into an exploration of these individuals’ worlds, uncovering their layered complexities and questioning both my own desires and broader societal norms. Most of the images in the series is handprinted, grounding the project in a tactile, personal approach to my artistic process.
Untitled, friends, all over, on going
You should try a time-lock, Performance, Montréal, 2021
You Should Try a Time Lock is a performance piece that visually and conceptually enacts this isolation through an act of submission, both literal and figurative, to time itself. Positioned in bondage gear and receiving directives from a "dom" via text, I am seated before a block of ice containing the single key to my release. The event is filmed in real-time, capturing the slow, almost imperceptible melting of the ice, a temporal prison that demands patience and surrender to the natural process.
This piece operates as both a symbolic and literal enactment of captivity, expressing my own submission to desire and control while challenging the broader experience of "wasted" or "unproductive" time. The ice, slowly succumbing to its inevitable dissolution, embodies the impermanence and relentlessness of time, while the key within it symbolizes both freedom and the near-impossibility of achieving it on demand.
You Should Try a Time Lock integrates elements of endurance art, performance, video, photography, and experimental film, including an eight-hour documentation of the event. The piece probes the intersection of the romantic and the brutal, aiming to evoke in viewers an intimate, almost visceral contemplation of their own relationship with time, control, and desire. This work is both a personal statement and a universal reflection on how we endure and sometimes embrace.
You should try a time lock (demo)
Video, 2021, 01:19 mins.