DAN CAMERON

Pierre and Gilles' life and work are as inseparable as they are. Whether in their early publicity work, their album covers, their magazine covers or their 'artistic' works, they establish no hierarchy between genres. Pierre is a photographer and Gilles is a painter, but neither medium ever takes precedence and it's hard to tell just what comes from painting and what comes from photography in their pictures. In their work, the two historically antagonistic art forms dovetail so perfectly that each is able to take on the supposed features of the other. It is as if the traditionally mechanical and mimetic power of photography has been made to take on the shifting, voluptuous aspect of painting, and vice versa. Gilles' paintbrush often gives the images an added dose of 'reality', while Pierre's photos often bring with them an extra gloss of idealization. Their hybrid, intermingled works are also places of both conflict and reconciliation although it is never possible to identify the precise contribution of their respective media.