TIMES SUSPENDED / SOLO SHOW
In February 2025, I present an exhibition of a new body of work at Titanium Finance & Akcess Private Office, Geneva.
You already know my My Own Private Museum series (from 2023), that raises the question of the creator's identity and confronts the void, the blank page, even the erasure of the self and my Real Estate series (from 2017), where I explore the relationship between reality and imagination, between knowledge and recognition, blurring limits of perception. There, I combine contemporary masterpieces - sometimes obviously, sometimes implicitly - in imaginary settings where I create new narratives, disconnected from their original context, setting up a complex and highly referenced multi-faceted imaginary dialogue, in which I take up and develop the discourses of the artists I quote.
“I believe in the importance of cultivating an ability to be present, to feel oneself in a body that listens and feels.”
The possibility of creating meaning
For years, I've been reflecting psychologically on art, memory and time. On this basis, I have recently decided to develop possible avenues for the production of painted works.
The new Times Suspended series thus accompanies the existing My Own Private Museum series (developed from 2023 onwards) and Real Estate series (2017 - 2021, which I will be taking up again in 2025). These different yet interconnected series will be developed in parallel, and will be complemented by new ones, all of which are oriented towards the search for “truth” and the possibility of creating meaning.
My practice is driven by a desire to grasp reality in all its dimensions, in all its possible perceptions, inspired by the facets of the prism of various contemporary practices.
Moreover, my work is not limited to this psychological and introspective dimension, but also analyzes the art of my time, posing as the writing of an apprenticeship…
Titanium Finance & Akcess Private Office
rue du Rhône 61
1204 Genève
Dates
February 12 - March 13, 2025
Guided tours from 7:00 pm to 7:30 pm (prior registration required)
Wednesday February 26
Thursday March 6
Wednesday March 12
and by appointment with Stéphane Ducret : +41 76 385 6888
If you wish to buy an artwork, please click to the ADD TO CART button and then go to the cart (top right of page) for payment. Shipping is not included but should be around 100-200 CHF worldwide, as the artworks are very small. If you would like to visit the exhibition or reserve an artwork (instalments possible), please contact Stéphane Ducret at +41 76 385 6888. Thank you !
“I believe that time is not a rigid system, that it can be perceived in a fluid way that differs from person to person.”
click on the images for details
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click on the images for details 〰️
Stéphane Ducret
Untitled (from the Times Suspended series)
2024
Oil on linen
51,6 x 51 x 3 cm | 20 ⅓ x 20 ⅛ x 1 ¼ in
Ref SDTS2501
RESERVED
“Relativity says that there are as many proper times as there are different observers. When you’re in motion, everything happens for you as if you weren’t in motion.”
Stéphane Ducret
Untitled (from the Times Suspended series)
2025
Oil on linen
27,7 x 34,5 x 2,5 cm | 10 ⅞ x 13 ⅔ x 1 in
Ref SDTS2504
RESERVED
Stéphane Ducret
Untitled (from the Times Suspended series)
2025
Oil on linen
24,8 x 31,0 x 2,5 cm | 9 ¾ x 12 ¼ x 1 in
Ref SDTS2502
The Times Suspended series
Physicists distinguish between the “course of time”, which is the fact that time passes and that we cannot find in the future a moment that we have already passed through in the past, and the “arrow of time”, which is the fact that things change irreversibly.
The question of the perception of time has long interested me. It is evoked in my aerial views of the sea, clouds or mountains, from the window of an airplane. Air travel is a ritual of mobility and, at the same time, of standing still, of connection to both the present and the infinite. This work leads us to question the past, the future and the present that lies in between.
In my Times Suspended series, I'm interested in the prism of the viewers of my paintings, who become the actors : by looking at these paintings, they put themselves back in the now habitual situation of looking out of an airplane window during a journey from point A to point B.
Suspended, seemingly motionless, they defer to the pilots and the course of the flight. The landscape below them seems almost motionless, yet the plane is moving forward at several hundred miles per hour.
In this way, they find themselves at several angles to the passage of time: the viewpoint of the present moment, the viewpoint of the past moment, the viewpoint of the past moment as they relive it in the present, and the - as yet improbable - viewpoint of the potential future.
As they watch the waves, the mountains or the clouds slowly roll by in miniature, they enter a psychological and introspective dimension. This is what I'm trying to explore in my new Times Suspended series.
“Learning is essentially about signs. Signs are the object of temporal learning, not abstract knowledge. To learn is first to consider a material, an object, a being as if they were emitting signs to be deciphered and interpreted. There is no apprentice who is not the ‘Egyptologist’ of something.”
Stéphane Ducret
Untitled (from the Times Suspended series)
2025
Oil on linen
27,5 x 34,5 x 2,5 cm | 10 ⅞ x 13 ⅔ x 1 in
Ref SDTS2505
RESERVED
-
The deep blue hues shift subtly across the canvas, creating an illusion of movement and depth. Delicate, almost invisible brushstrokes layer to form a rich tapestry of patterns, evoking the serene play of light on water. The edges of the piece appear rough, as if torn from a larger whole, enhancing its organic, fluid nature.
The use of chiaroscuro enhances the sense of depth and allows glimpses of a dark and mysterious sensation. This piece compels the viewer to ponder the infinite, ever-changing nature of the ocean, inviting a meditative exploration of its complex, layered beauty. It asserts a bold simplicity in capturing the ephemeral essence of movement and stillness.
The question of time
“Einstein refutes the notion of universal time, and links space and time in his theory of relativity. He shows that the separation between space and time is not absolute: it depends on the reference frame.
In fact, what relativity says is that there are as many proper times as there are different observers. When you're in motion, everything happens for you as if you weren't in motion. Your watch marks the seconds at the same rate as when you're standing still.
On the other hand, if you move in relation to someone, when you meet up with that observer again after your journey, your watches, which were synchronized at the start, will no longer be synchronized.” (to understand how, read Marine Corniou’s interview for Québec Science, 10.23.2014).
“Proper times become desynchronized when you change reference frames. This translates into the fact that, while two events taking place in two different places are simultaneous for you, they are not for observers moving relative to you. It's counter-intuitive. (ibid.)
Stéphane Ducret
Untitled (from the Times Suspended series)
2024
Oil on linen
25,2 x 30,5 x 2,5 cm | 9 ⅞ x 12 x 1 in
Ref SDTS2402
SOLD
Stéphane Ducret
Untitled (from the Times Suspended series)
2024
Oil on linen
30,8 x 37,8 x 2,5 cm | 12 ⅛ x 14 ⅞ x 1 in
Ref SDTS2403
“You could say that time is what ensures that every present moment, as soon as it appears, is replaced by another present moment. Time is what guarantees the permanent presence of the present.”
Stéphane Ducret
Untitled (from the Times Suspended series)
2025
Oil on linen
30,9 x 37,7 x 2,5 cm | 12 ⅛ x 14 ⅞ x 1 in
Ref SDTS2506
The paintings
My works are complex, meditative compositions that blur the boundaries between mnemonic and imaginative registers. Like Lucas Arruda’s paintings, to which I refer in this series (as well as those by John Constable and other landscape painters who themselves inspired Arruda), my evocative landscapes are more the product of a state of mind, than the representation of particular places. As Arruda points out : “The only reason to call my works landscapes is cultural—it’s simply that viewers automatically register my format as a landscape, although none of the images can be traced to a geographic location. It's the idea of landscape as a structure, rather than a real place.” (The artist cited in Angeria Rigamonti di Cutò, “Lucas Arruda: ‘The only reason to call my works landscapes is cultural’” studiointernational.com, September 19, 2017).
Looking at my paintings, I feel like describing them like Morton Feldman, a perceptive commentator on the visual arts, who once described his compositions as “time canvases.” « Feldman sought an aural equivalent to the texture and scale of Abstract Expressionist paintings like those of Mark Rothko and Barnett Newman. To this end, late in his career, he began to explore subtleties of repetition and variation in chamber pieces as long as six hours—music, Feldman said, that did not “exist by way of time, in time or about time… but as time…time as an image… time undisturbed.” » (Alex Grimley, in « Lucas Arruda: Assum Preto », brooklynrail.org, June 2024).
Stéphane Ducret
Untitled (from the Times Suspended series)
2025
Oil on linen
27,8 x 34,5 x 2,5 cm | 10 ⅞ x 13 ⅔ x 1 in
Ref SDTS2503
Stéphane Ducret
Untitled (from the Times Suspended series)
2024
Oil on linen
27,9 x 34,7 x 2,5 cm | 11 x 13 ⅔ x 1 in
Ref SDTS2409
“The question of the perception of time has long interested me. It is evoked in my views of the sea, clouds or mountains, from the window of an airplane. Air travel is a ritual of standing still, and connecting both to the now and to the infinite. This work leads us to question the past, the future and the present that lies in between.”
Stéphane Ducret
Untitled (from the Times Suspended series)
2024
Oil on linen
25,0 x 30,5 x 2,5 cm | 9 ⅞ x 12 x 1 in
Ref SDTS2410
Even if Morton Feldman's music - I'm thinking in particular of The Viola in My Life, 1970 - could perfectly accompany visitors' gaze on my paintings, the main musical inspirations that bathed my environment during my painting work for this series are rock, alternative rock and punk, and sometimes various Brazilian music, most often Bossa Nova. I think this is reflected in the results, which are often quite raw, and rarely, but still soft at times.
In my paintings, the procession of motifs - water, clouds, mountains - recurs without repetition. Sensations of temporality permeate these works—as portraits of meditation. It's a question of temporality in motion, of time moving forward. Although figurative in appearance, my work often verges on abstraction. Apart from the view of palm trees and a small hut, there are no people to narrate the scene, nor objects to establish a sense of internal scale. The approaching or receding clouds, dense with pressure or bathed in light, tranquil, always suspended above the suggestion of sea or mountain, become their own context, without external reference, suggesting no specific place.
The tropical view of the beach with palm trees and a hut, as if observed from the sea (while swimming, or from a boat), by contrast, encompasses verticality and horizontality at the same time, and makes allusive associations with my recurring vacations on the paradisiacal beaches of the island of Boipeba, Brazil. It is associated with my reflections on time : Vacations are a time of “in-between” in life. It separates one period, generally of work, from another period, of work too, or more generally, of life. The small beach hut seems closed, the plastic tables and chairs stacked one on top of the other. The forest, a monochrome “anthracite” brown, is in relative half-light. It's the end of the day, the sun is descending behind the trees (the shadow of a trunk on the sand gives us this information). The lazy day on the beach and in the water is now over, and it's time to head back to the hotel, or home at the end of the vacation, with a new look at the passage of time and the philosophical question : What do we do now, where do we go from here? This is the only painting in the series to have been given a title : Where are we now? in reference to David Bowie's song of the same name.
Stéphane Ducret
Untitled (from the Times Suspended series)
2024
Oil on linen
30,7 x 37,2 x 2,5 cm | 12 ⅞ x 14 ⅔ x 1 in
Ref SDTS2407
SOLD
Stéphane Ducret
Untitled (from the Times Suspended series)
2024
Oil on linen
30,7 x 37,2 x 2,5 cm | 12 ⅞ x 14 ⅔ x 1 in
Ref SDTS2408
SOLD
“My characteristic marking, for this series of works, resembles that of an etching, sometimes an engraving. The paint surface is scratched, hatched and scored, with brush marks that seem to have removed pigment and revealed the underlying colors. This technique creates a liminal, breathable surface.”
Stéphane Ducret
Untitled (from the Times Suspended series)
2024
Oil on linen
31,0 x 37,5 x 2,5 cm | 12 ¼ x 14 ¾ x 1 in
Ref SDTS2406
“Sensations of temporality permeate these works—as portraits of meditation. It’s a question of temporality in motion, of time moving forward. Although figurative in appearance, my work often verges on abstraction.”
Stéphane Ducret
Untitled (from the Times Suspended series)
2024
Oil on linen
27,8 x 34,6 x 2,5 cm | 10 ⅞ x 13 ⅔ x 1 in
Ref SDTS2411
Stéphane Ducret
Untitled (from the Times Suspended series)
2024
Oil on linen
24,8 x 30,5 x 2,5 cm | 9 ¾ x 12 x 1 in
Ref SDTS2412
“The lazy day on the beach and in the water is now over, and it’s time to head back to the hotel, or home at the end of the vacation, with a new look at the passage of time and the philosophical question : What do we do now, where do we go from here?”
Stéphane Ducret
Where are we now? (from the Times Suspended series)
2025
Oil on linen
25,2 x 30,6 x 2,5 cm | 9 ⅞ x 12 x 1 in
Ref SDTS2501
-
Dominating the composition are towering palm trees, their fronds stretching skyward, creating an imposing canopy. The lush, densely packed foliage serves as a backdrop, rendered in dark, rich tones that evoke a sense of mystery. In the foreground, two vibrantly colored huts, one green and the other yellow, stand out vividly against the natural backdrop. These structures introduce a delightful contrast, adding liveliness to the otherwise serene setting.
My technique, characterized by thick brushstrokes and layered textures, imparts a tactile quality, inviting viewers to almost feel the roughness of the foliage and the solidity of the huts. The play of light and shadow further enhances the visual interest, casting a soft, diffused glow over the entire scene. This masterful depiction transports viewers to a tranquil yet enigmatic tropical paradise, keeping them entranced with its beauty.
The subject of another painting, this one square and larger than the others (approx. 50 cm, or 20 inches square), although still in relatively intimate dimensions, the moon - an extra-terrestrial object - is nonetheless a significant element of influence: lighting of the earth (by reflection of sunlight, thus acting as a mirror), tides, moods... and of course also prejudices and superstitions about the moon's influence on menstruation mechanisms and the number of childbirths at the time of the full moon (denied by statistical studies), or its presence in astrology, Tarot, etc. The moon complements the small rectangular meditative paintings.
Of similar dimensions, the sun completes this mini cosmology, as it is essential to our survival and well-being.
Although the themes at the heart of my small paintings (time, memory, projection) are as abstract and intangible as my seascapes and mountain landscapes, one of the most immediate impressions of the objects themselves is that of painterliness and materiality. Drawn to these works by their intimate size, one finds a surface so finely detailed that it becomes enveloping and immersive.
Stéphane Ducret
Untitled (from the Times Suspended series)
2024
Oil on linen
50,7 x 50,4 x 3 cm | 20 x 19 ⅞ x 1 ¼ in
Ref SDTS2401
My brushwork, corresponding to the proportions of the canvases, gives an impression of scale that far exceeds the physical size of the painting. My characteristic marking, for this series of works, resembles that of an etching, sometimes an engraving. The paint surface is scratched, hatched and scored, with brush marks that seem to have removed pigment and revealed the underlying colors. This technique creates a liminal, breathable surface.
Like Hiroshi Sugimoto's long-exposure photographs of the sea, Lucas Arruda’s and John Constable’s seascapes, or Vija Celmins’ Ocean paintings and drawings, my paintings aim to accumulate time in a still image, slowly revealing itself, with layers of pigment becoming progressively more opaque or lighter and, at the same time, suggestive of ever deeper space and enigmatic experience.
Painted from my imagination, the aerial views are not reminiscent of particular places, but rather inspire meditative, solitary contemplation.
Devoid of specific points of reference, the seascapes are not delimited by horizon lines. On the contrary, their direction is always diagonal, suggesting movement or displacement.
Rather than observing nature, I seek to discover a sensation, a state of mind suspended in time within the medium of paint.
Stéphane Ducret
February, 2025
Also on view in the exhibition
Stéphane Ducret
Mark Grotjahn, Untitled (Pink Cosco VI Mask M40.G), 2016 (from the My Own Private Museum series)
2024
Oil, oil stick and pencil on linen
48 x 38 x 3,5 cm | 18 ⅞ x 15 x 1 ⅓ inches
Stéphane Ducret
Untitled (beyond Josh Smith), BJS12 (from the My Own Private Museum series)
2023
Oilstick and paper on Arches paper
57 x 47 cm | 22 ⅓ x 18 ½ inches
(frame: 60 x 50 cm | 23 ⅔ x 19 ⅔ inches)
Stéphane Ducret
Drawing Number 6 (#SterlingRuby #JeanRoyere) (from the Real Estate series)
2021
Oilstick, China Marker, pencil and Daler Rowney paper collage on Sennelier paper
57 x 47 cm | 22 ⅓ x 18 ½ inches
(frame: 60 x 50 cm | 23 ⅔ x 19 ⅔ inches)
RESERVED