Reynald Drouhin belongs to this generation of artists trained in art schools and universities. Who does not know his appropriation of The Origin of the World by Gustave Courbet, in 2001, when he was “defragmenting the internet with the image” by using the power of search engines. He emerged on the artistic scene at the end of the 90’s. He was then called the Net Artsit. But it is definitely a multidisciplinary artist that the art gallery Numeriscausa exhibits today under the name Ghost Walk.

Keyword [ monochrome ]
It’s by using the keyword « Monochrome » that Reynald Drouhin creates in 2005 red, green or blue images by putting together different visual images of which indexation names indicate to internet search engines their chromatic qualities. Taken out of its context, the Monochrome Keyword is represented by the white light that defines it at the same time. We then inevitably think about Joseph Kosuth mentioning simultaneously a chair by its textual definition, its photographic representation and finally its mourning show.


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Keyword [ monochrome ], 2006, white neon light néon on Plexiglas

IP Monochrome
Reynald Drouhin offers to every person connecting to the website "IP Monochrome" the one and only colour square that corresponds to the IP address of his machine. And the purity of this IPM (Internet Protocol Monochrome) colour, is in totally comparable to the IKB (International Klein Blue) one. But the internet user, that therefore also becomes collector, simply has to click on this pure colour representing him to finally view the on line exhibition of the 200 last colours allocated behind which are as many individuals as machines.

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IP Monochrome, 2006, website

Plan
Plan is an essential step in Reynald Drouhin’s work, a transition step between the series of the IPM and the one of the IPC (Internet Protocol City). Plan comes from a conversion method put together by the artist to turn monochromes in monoliths. Plan, just like yesterday’s pierced cards or today’s semacodes, seems to contain some information that we present, but that only machines are able to interpret. Plan only represents a city plot waiting for elevation.

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Plan, 2008, silkscreen on paper.

Internet Protocol City
I.P.C. is a creation that feeds itself, on line, of another previous piece of work: IP Monochrome. Its dependency towards it is comparable to the relationship that a parasite keeps with its host. Every internet user connecting to the "I.P.C." website can browse within the virtual city that was made by the past presence of other internet users on another website. And even if made from traffic, it appears to us as being deserted just like ideal cities of the Renaissance are, too ideal to be taken over by inhabitants…

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Internet Protocol City, 2007, Lambda printing on Diasec with aluminium frame.

I.P.C. [detail]
…And as unique inhabitant, a grey cloud looking rather ghostly.  Ghost Walk, says the artist, means « to slip away », “to take French leave”. This vaporous shape seems to be in suspension in the space in the middle of ideal cities of which Reynald Drouhin shares paternity with hundred thousands of strangers. This gaseous mass with undefined outlines thus testifies of the presence of co-authors of the online piece of art that gave birth to this monolith combination without questions nor answers.

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I.P.C. [Detail ] 2008, Lambda printing on Diasec with aluminium frame.

Dominique Moulon

Pictures: D.R.
Website: http://reynald.incident.net
Numeriscausa: http://www.numeriscausa.com
Ghost Walk exhibition, Galerie Numeriscausa, 14th November 2008 to 14th January 2009.
IP Monochrome: http://incident.net/works/ipm
I.P.C.: http://incident.net/works/ipc