A View from Nowhere

We are connected with all parts of the universe, as with the future and the distant past. Which connection we wish to develop in particular, which is to be especially important and active for us, depends solely on the direction and duration of our attention.

— Novalis

Experimenter presents A View from Nowhere, an immersive solo by Julien Segard at Experimenter – Hindusthan Road. Rooted in experiences of solitude and silence within a remote, rustic cabin in France, where Segard spent most of the past year, the exhibition is a reflection on interiority, the passage of time, and the fragile equilibrium we anchor ourselves to. At first sight it exudes the environment of a constructed space, but in time reveals itself to resemble a disjointed dreamscape — a field of sight, a way of looking at the world outside through the crevices of Segard’s own mind.

For Segard, the cabin symbolises on the one hand precarious experiences of ephemerality, withdrawal and rupture, but on the other memories of childhood: the wonderment with time and its perceived speed, the transformation of day into night and the changing of seasons — from silent spring to harsh winter — of infinite stars and celestial bodies, shadows, light and darkness. Using a range of found paper to make large collages, charcoal drawings and paintings, Segard builds an environment that engulfs the viewer, embedding them deep within the minuteness of the installation while at the same time throwing open vast, infinite spaces.

Rosalyn D’Mello’s essay on the exhibition — the nine months in the cabin, and domestication as a way of working — is at Domesticating the Nowhere.