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{"id":270020,"date":"2025-08-27T16:25:00","date_gmt":"2025-08-27T21:25:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/esse.ca\/compte-rendu\/tristram-lansdowne-well-weather-window\/"},"modified":"2025-08-28T09:40:36","modified_gmt":"2025-08-28T14:40:36","slug":"tristram-lansdowne-well-weather-window","status":"publish","type":"compte-rendu","link":"https:\/\/staging.esse.ca\/en\/reviews\/tristram-lansdowne-well-weather-window\/","title":{"rendered":"Tristram Lansdowne
Well Weather Window<\/em>"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
In Tristram Lansdowne\u2019s recent paintings, the reflective surfaces of late capitalism shimmer with the intensity of a desert mirage. The watercolours assembled in Well Weather Window <\/em>staged a spellbinding panorama of glamour and decay. Framed within shallow depths, the discontents of Lansdowne\u2019s recent spell as Roswell Artist-in-Residence flickered like the mundane wonders of latter-day cabinets of curiosity. Vitrine-like in construction, these works recall the marquetry illusions of Renaissance cabinets whose trick drawers and secret compartments sheltered rare marvels. Lansdowne, however, substitutes the doubtful flash of a flaming shot glass and the gleam of a discarded foil wrapper for the treasures once curated by connoisseurs.<\/pre>\n\n\n\n
Flexing the friction between a meticulous hyperrealism and a penchant for non-sequitur imagery, Lansdowne conjures Plato\u2019s injunctions against the mimetic arts. Scattered across the ancient Greek philosopher\u2019s dialogues are cautionary comments about technical innovations in the painting of his time that had heightened the medium\u2019s powers of illusion. Lansdowne\u2019s play on disarming naturalism and jarring montage rehearses storied debates set in motion by those admonitions, but he replaces the perspectival theatre backdrops of Plato\u2019s time with the image layers of digital graphics editors such as Photoshop. The titular \u201cwindow\u201d of Lansdowne\u2019s suite of paintings gestures towards this eclipse of the Albertian window by the electronic screen\u200a\u2014\u200aan epochal shift echoed by the bevelled edges of some works.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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\"Tristam
Tristam Lansdowne<\/strong>
Untitled<\/em>, 2025.
Photo: Darren Rigo, courtesy of the artist & Galerie Nicolas Robert, Montr\u00e9al & Toronto<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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The letter-like but ultimately undecipherable chromed grillwork of Untitled <\/em>(2025) is indicative of the elusive relationships cultivated by Lansdowne in the ensemble as a whole, in which symbolic meanings are discarded in favour of elective affinities of mood. But this sphinx-like evasion of overt messaging cannot conceal the unmistakable resonance between the Platonic concerns excavated by Well Weather Window <\/em>and the freighted politics of the image in the era of Trump 2.0. As ubiquitous image-sharing platforms are overtaken by bots and the phantasmagoria of AI, we increasingly find ourselves navigating dystopian illusions reminiscent of the shadow world of the philosopher\u2019s cave. The seductively chocolate-covered fruit and menacingly empty wigs of Lover\u2019s Cover <\/em>(2025) materialize bellwether topoi of disguise and deception.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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<\/div>\n\n\n\n
\n
\"Tristam
Tristam Lansdowne<\/strong>
Lovers\u2019s Cover<\/em>, 2025.
Photo: Darren Rigo, courtesy of the artist & Galerie Nicolas Robert, Montr\u00e9al & Toronto<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
Ironically, Lansdowne\u2019s interrogation of the tyranny of imitation turns on his mastery of mimesis. Participating in a broader realist turn, Lansdowne\u2019s paintings succeed where others fall short through the astonishing range of surfaces and light effects that they simulate with conviction, from the shadows cutting through a chalky emulsion of milk in Supply Line Shine <\/em>(2025) to the weathered scrim of Carrizozo Christ<\/em> (2025).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n
\n
\"Tristam
Tristam Lansdowne<\/strong>
Carrizozo Christ<\/em>, 2025.
Photo: Darren Rigo, courtesy of the artist & Galerie Nicolas Robert, Montr\u00e9al & Toronto<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
Metallic greens and blues give presence to even void-like expanses of desert sky and the quicksilver drama of reflected illumination. A scattering of hues produced by iridescence appropriately mirrors the dispersal of the gaze triggered by Lansdowne\u2019s hypnotic montage of disparate source imagery. Meanwhile, the psychedelic pulse of a mouldy cob of bread in Naturalizer <\/em>(2024) is emblematic of an eerie fungal growth that encroaches on several works. But Lansdowne\u2019s paintings are much more than technical showpieces. Their poised stagecraft unfolds a timely portent of ruin.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Galerie Nicolas Robert,<\/strong> Toronto
May 3\u200a\u2013\u200aJune 7, 2025<\/br>","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":270019,"template":"","categories":[884],"numeros":[7549],"disciplines":[],"statuts":[],"checklist":[],"auteurs":[832],"artistes":[7607],"thematiques":[],"type_compte-rendu":[],"class_list":["post-270020","compte-rendu","type-compte-rendu","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-reviews","numeros-115-decay","auteurs-adam-lauder","artistes-tristram-lansdowne-en"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.esse.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/compte-rendu\/270020","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.esse.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/compte-rendu"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.esse.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/compte-rendu"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.esse.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.esse.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/270019"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.esse.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=270020"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.esse.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=270020"},{"taxonomy":"numeros","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.esse.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/numeros?post=270020"},{"taxonomy":"disciplines","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.esse.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/disciplines?post=270020"},{"taxonomy":"statuts","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.esse.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/statuts?post=270020"},{"taxonomy":"checklist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.esse.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/checklist?post=270020"},{"taxonomy":"auteurs","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.esse.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/auteurs?post=270020"},{"taxonomy":"artistes","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.esse.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artistes?post=270020"},{"taxonomy":"thematiques","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.esse.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/thematiques?post=270020"},{"taxonomy":"type_compte-rendu","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.esse.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/type_compte-rendu?post=270020"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}