Picture Transition (Display Camera) is a work made in place, in operation and on view at the Fonderie Darling in Montréal from 2013 to 2016. The Fonderie is a particular kind of studio, a blend between private workspace and public engagement. A place of work that is also a place of display. Providing this privileged view on artistic production to others is in large part how the Fonderie supports its artists. During my residency, I created photographs with a set of portable display cases found on site, which I transformed into pinhole cameras. The work begins by being only : a display camera, the same size and shape as the area of display, filling it up entirely. Simply, it records in long exposures, depending on the conditions (often weeks). And since something must be existent for half the time to register in the photograph, there are many things present but not visible. Entirely full of people but because the exposures are so long, only the still things register. The people disappear. Occupying the activities around artistic production—open houses, studio visits, public viewings, fundraising events, gallery rentals—the work relies on the conditions of its location. It looks out toward participatory, collaborative and collective modes of action, a fundamental part of the content and structure of its activity. As a work, it doesn’t establish the limits of its own specificity. It simply brings forth, makes appear. The clips and bits of tape that hold the photo paper in position inside the camera reveals its construction, the method of the image becoming through process.

Sarah Greig is an artist who lives and works in Montreal