Yves O’Reilly completed college studies in pure sciences in the late 1970s. After curating many exhibitions in Ville Saint-Léonard (1983-1986), he served as director of Laval’s second international enamel biennale (1989) and as coordinator of Atelier de sculpture 213 in Laval (1989-1990). In addition to making videos and films, he integrates photography into his in situ installations to create places shadowed by death, whether that of his subject or that of the image itself. In 1996, for example, he dug two pits into the ground at the Maison Hamel-Bruneau in Quebec City. In the first, he placed an immense blurred photograph of a ghostly figure, one that appeared to be engulfed by the wavelike reflections cast by a glass stele set up in front of the image; the second cavity simply contained a stele and a jar of water. Entitled Sans titre (“untitled”), this work is characteristic of O’Reilly’s exploration of things that are ephemeral and unseen, of forgotten memories, emptiness, loss and silence. In a spirit similar to the Japanese philosophy of wabi-sabi, he also uses resins, gums and herbs to make incense that he later fashions into sculptures.
SEE:
« Commentaires sur l’installation du vase » by Rossitza Daskalova, ESPACE #20, p. 37
« Sculptures complices » by Jean Dumont, ESPACE #32, p. 35.
« Photos… in the Garden » by Serge Fisette, ESPACE #38, p. 11.
« Yves O’Reilly : Quatre ou cinq histoires aperçues avec ou sans Yves O’Reilly à Paris » by Marc Archambault, ESPACE #41, p. 34.
« With joy and sorrow » by Serge Fisette, ESPACE #42, p. 6.
