Interview with Antoine Lussier

Dani: First of all, can you tell us about your studies?

Antoine: I’m currently finishing my bachelor in fine arts and photography at Concordia University, in Canada.

D: What is the medium you mostly work with?

A: I’m using mostly photography, digital edition, large format negatives (4 by 5). My practice is a bit “meta”, where I like to talk about photography while using photography and other resources like drawing and what I like to call “photography enemies” such as dust, fingerprints, scratches, etc. I like to destroy the files, tear them apart and/or mess up the pixels and work with layers, because my practice is very process based.

D: Would you consider that your work has more emphasis on the process than the result?

A: Yes, when I explain my process to other people, it reveals something. I like the non-consistency and the way that the work itself leads me to keep experimenting in different ways.

D: What impulses you to talk about photography in a “meta” way?

A: Photography in greek, photo means light, and graphy means writing, so I think I like the idea of writing with reflection, silver, the idea of mirrors. I like the link between these and photography, because photography is a way of drawing with light.

D: Would you say that growing up in Montreal influenced your practice?

A: Maybe, yes. Montreal is a very photographic city with a lot of photo shops, cameras, laboratories for analogue or digital photography.

D: Can you share with us the biggest artistic influences on your practice?

A: The artists that kind of spur me when I started doing what I do now would be the drawings of Jean Cocteau, classic surrealists like Man Ray, russian constructivism. The neighborhood that I come from was very industrial, with a lot of factories and mining among other weird industries, so I believe that drove me to brutalism and punk and I think that wanders in my work, the lack of color for example.