February 2008
PHOTOGRAPHS by Jules de Niverville, entitled LUCKY NUMBERS
FEBRUARY 1 – March 2, 2008 / Vernissage Friday February 1, 2008 / 7-10pm / Tunes by dj Christopher Jabbour / Proudly sponsored by CKCU 93.1 FM
I have heard that La Petite Mort Gallery is notorious for showing sexual content and pushing the boundaries. However, my prerogative has always been to show the real, the true and the raw. This exhibition by my good friend, Jules de Niverville is one that stays true to the criteria for all my exhibitions. Jules’ photographs hold a special significance and document an important period in my life. A period that was frenzied, one of kaleidoscopic colours and sounds; it was a period of the night and the beauty that it inspires.
I met Jules in the nineties and fell in love with his photography. At this point in my life, I had moved to New York and invited Jules along for the ride. Jules was set up with all the necessities and set about chronicling the big apple-an apple that would prove to be juicy fodder for a canon of sensual works. The show comprises a series of diptychs vivid in colour and ripe in their humanity. The images of these men are documents of a fleeting moment in time: cigarettes half smoked, bubbles floating in the air, moist bodies in the tub and a glance downwards. Many of these men are no longer with us yet the images resonate the people- their personalities, their addictions, their habits, their livelihoods and in this way, they will never be forgotten.
Guy Berube, director / La Petite Mort Gallery
Written by Diana Merta
Come meet Jules, the photographer, who will be in from Montreal for the vernissage!
Artist Statement:
LUCKY NUMBERS focuses on a handful of young gay male sex workers in New York City. In their prime and seduced by a lifestyle of instant gratification, they share an existence defined by its marriage to sex and the illicit. In moving to the big city and compelled by a dream of reinvention, they allow the unfamiliar to take a lead in informing their lives. The innocence with which these young men explore newfound notions of liberty quickly transforms into its own kind of entrapment. Living in a home rule world, they become inevitably hardened by the traffic of their insatiable desires; their newfound dilemma increasingly fueled by claustrophobia and jilted intimacy.
The title of the series refers to the flip side of fortune cookie proverbs found accompanying the all too common take-out diet. LUCKY NUMBERS are gambling numbers, inscribed as the optional route to the tried and true wisdom outlined for the more conventional in nature. Jules de Niverville, 2008
Thanks,
Guy Berube, director / La Petite Mort Gallery