photos by florence: works and exhibits

Giants Leap 2007/2008	Precaution 2007
Almost Gone 2006	Through 2003-2004/2006/2007	Artropolis 2001
Sense of Movement 2006	Assemblage 2002-2003	Mural 2001
Speaking Words of Wisdom 2005	Deterioration 2002	Collages 2001
Life of Water 2005-2006	Exposure Gallery 2001	At the Edge of Wilderness 2000-2003
Left Behind 2004	Geist Magazine 2001	Soundscape Journal 2000

Giants Leap / À pas de géants, 2007-2008

Vancouver Museum and Vancity Theatre

Giants Leap / À pas de géants, a one-hour documentary, has been co-written, co-directed and co-produced in collaboration with filmmaker Lynsey Hamilton. It is a diverse portrait of a changing neighbourhood raising questions of progress, heritage preservation, housing and culture. The development pressures in Vancouver on old structures and heritage are erasing the physical evidence of the past, replacing it with questionable construction choices. The city is becoming one accessible only for the rich and the quality of architecture has been identified as second or third rate. The residents are being driven out of their homes by developers pursuing profit.

Locations and Dates:

Vancouver Museum, screening with Heritage Vancouver Society followed by a panel discussion
November 15, 2007
Vancity Theatre, screening during Les 14es Rendez-vous du cinéma québécois et francophone
February 8, 2008

Precaution, September 2007

Touchstones Nelson: Museum of Art and History

CAUTION sign is a powerful symbol, causing us to detour around a site, despite the absence of human authority. This CAUTION has entered our subconscious, with its connotation of warning and danger, but do we even bother reading the words? The linear and stretched shape, bright colour, dark letters, and location are enough to stop us from entering the areas it guards. Because we know its role and take its CAUTION for granted, we seldom take the time to approach, to get close enough to read the words, to isolate which danger we are CAUTIONed against, to question the essential characteristics of this inanimate perimeter guard.

Curated by:
Location:
Dates:

Deborah Loxam-Kohl
Touchstones Nelson: Museum of Art and History, Nelson, BC
September 22 to November 11, 2007

Almost Gone: Remains of Cannery Villages, May 2006

Steveston and Port Edward, BC

Almost Gone, a 26-minute documentary, evokes the essence of a prolific era on the remote Central and Northern BC coasts. This montage of photographs, video footage, interviews and soundtrack juxtaposes remains of cannery villages and memories of people who once lived and worked there. It is important for the public to discover a way of living which no longer exists; for example, these people left their homes — some of them with their whole family - for this kind of seasonal work in very remote places. The production triggers the viewers to question the way we preserve our heritage when they witness the disheartening lack of physical evidence of such an important era of BC history.

Locations and dates:
Gulf of Georgia Cannery Historical Site, Steveston, BC	Première on May 4, 2006 Daily screening from May to October 2006
North Pacific Historical Village, Port Edward, BC	Daily screening from May to October 2006
Alliance française, Vancouver, BC	One French screening on May 11th, 2006

A 6-minute coverage in French was broadcast during Zigzag, a Radio Canada TV show. It describes the process for making Almost Gone.
To see the coverage, click on the following link. In the middle of the page, type "Florence Debeugny" in the "Recherche dans nos archives" field.
http://www.radio-canada.ca/regions/colombie-britannique/tele/zigzag.shtml

Original soundtrack by Gordon Cobb www.cobbhousestudio.com
Georgia Straight Review

Sense of Movement, 2006

Evergreen Cultural Centre

Photo by Gerry Fuoco

Some Through series prints were exhibited in a group show of four francophone visual artists sharing a common trajectory characterized by bi-culturality and a constant redefining of their identity. Movement is at the heart of their migratory life and is expressed in their art through references to dance, walk, flight and optical shifts of perspectives.

Curated by:
Location:
Dates:

Florence Debeugny
Evergreen Cultural Centre, Coquitlam, BC
March 2 to April 1, 2006

Speaking Words of Wisdom, 2005

Havana Art Gallery

Combining photographs of individual words collected from an urban environment allows for play with meanings. The Ouch Ltd. arrangement refers, in a simplistic way, to corporations which run the economical sector whilst ignoring the social and environmental aspects necessary to human stability.

Curated by:
Location:
Date:

Katherine Polgrain
Havana Art Gallery, Vancouver, BC
November 2005

Life of Water, 2005-2006

Toronto, Vancouver, Montréal

Two large prints from a photo essay addressing the connection between the decrease in annual rainfall and the increased use of cars, an acknowledged contributor to climate change, were presented during the group show including 100 Canadian photographers.

Produced by: PhotoSensitive
Locations and Dates:

Allen Lambert Galleria, Toronto
September 7 to 24, 2005
Collingwood Public Library, Collingwood
November 1 to 26, 2005
Moat Gallery, Main Vancouver Public Library, Vancouver
February 1 to 14, 2006
Maison de la culture Côtes-des-Neiges, Montréal
March 2 to April 16, 2006

Left Behind, 2004

Britannia Art Gallery

Five found objects hanging from the top of the display box were presented at eye level. Small photo prints hanged on the objects. Smaller found objects and several small photos laid on yellow fall leaves at the bottom of the display box.

Curated by:
Location:
Dates:

Britannia Art Gallery
1661 Napier Street, Vancouver
November 2 to December 31, 2004

Through, 2003 - 2004/2006/2007

VECC Gallery, Campbell River Art Gallery and Sunshine Coast Arts Centre

Twenty prints on industrial theme photographed through mesh, plastic and glass, were presented during two different solo shows. They express psychological shifts through varying depths of field and illustrate the parallel between the subjectivity of photography and the way we observe, judge and interpret the world around us.

Locations and Dates:

Vancouver East Cultural Centre Gallery, BC
November 28, 2003 to Jan. 13, 2004
Campbell River Art Gallery, BC
April 21 to May 27, 2006
Sunshine Coast Arts Centre, Sechelt, BC
From February 21 to March 25, 2007

Assemblage, 2002 - 2003

Three art pieces made of photographic prints mounted on rusty objects or shown behind fences have been presented at: Deterioration, solo show Galiano Art Gallery BC, May 2002 Rust Show, group show Glass Onion Vancouver BC, July 2002 Seconds, group show North Vancouver Arts Council BC, November 2002 Residue, Artropolis 2003 CBC Studios Vancouver BC, May 2003		view asssemblage works

The Deterioration Show, 2002



Thirty-four of my prints from the Deterioration series were exhibited
Passage of time details in urban and industrial environment
Alliance Française Gallery Toronto ON - solo show		March - April, 2002
Galiano Art Gallery BC - solo show		May 2002
Britannia Beach Mining Museum BC - solo show		Summer 2002
Kaslo Langham Cultural Centre - solo show		Summer 2003

The Vancouver Show, November 2001

Exposure Gallery


view the exhibited photos
Six of my prints from the Urban and Industrial Deterioration series were exhibited at the Exposure Gallery in Vancouver. Seventeen photographers participated in this group show whose theme was Vancouver. The artists' works the curator selected presented the city with diverse styles and different areas of interest within the Vancouver Show theme.
Produced by: Location: Dates:	Exposure Gallery Curator Ian McGuffie 851 Beatty Street, Vancouver November 23 to December 9, 2001

The Geist Magazine, issue no. 41, summer 2001

Canadian Ideas....
...Canadian Culture magazine
The featured article Industrial Ghosts presents the installation At the Edge of Wilderness. The exhibition was held at the Vancouver Ironworks in September 2000. Nineteen of the installation's 400 photographs are published in this article. The article's text includes words found in Hildegard Westerkamp's soundscape composition, part of the installation.

view full article page 35 to 38 - actual print size - slow download
view full details Industrial Ear installation

Artropolis 2001: Environment & Identity

Contemporary BC visual art

In April 2001, my work entitled "Twisted metal" was presented at Artropolis in the curated exhibition "Erosion". I am interested in the "aging metropolis". Coming from Europe, I have always been attracted to ruins, remains of past generations and circumstances, which speak to us as much as literature or paintings do. I find a definite beauty in abandoned things and feel some melancholy at how easy we leave them to deteriorate before we eliminate them.
		view the erosion gallery
Produced by: Location: Dates:	Artropolis Society Vancouver's CBC Broadcast Centre April 7 to April 28, 2001

At the Edge of Wilderness 2000 - 2003

In collaboration with Hildegard Westerkamp, soundscape composer, I completed a 400-slide, five-projector soundtracked installation entitled "At the Edge of Wilderness". This installation explored the interaction of nature with the remains of some of British Columbia 's most intriguing ghost towns. Considering British Columbia 's relatively brief history, our ghost towns represent the ruins of our "ancient" past. I intended to capture their essence before nature reclaims them forever.
	Photos by P. Courtemanche Full Details Here Modified installation panorama
Industrial Ear produced by the Western Front, at Vancouver Ironworks		Sept 2000
Spirits of the West, at the Whyte Museum in Banff, displayed beside First Son a photo exhibit of portraits by C.D. Hoy		Oct 02-Jan 03
International Symposium on Acoustic Ecology, at the Victorian College of the Arts in Melbourne, Australia		May 2003

Mural, February 2001


	Installation of nine large prints of the ghost town series 2000, in the home of a private collector. I enjoyed the process of this experience: selecting nine images from over 500 photographs; choosing to place them on the wall adjacent to one another in order to convey a sense of togetherness while their individuality distinguishes them.

Collages, March 2001


				Collages created for the submission cover of a proposal sent to Canada Council for the Arts in March 2001. I am exploring the idea of creating large collages of my rusty and textural images.

Soundscape, Winter 2000

		Cover photo of Soundscape, the Journal of Acoustic Ecology Volume 1, Number 2, Winter 2000 Cover design by Robert MacNevin

Reproduction of material from any