OAKVILLE, ONTARIO, CANADA.- Oakville Galleries presents Montreal artist Isabelle Hayeur , on view through August 27, 2006 and curated by Serge Bérard. Isabelle Hayeur’s art is an ecological critique of the effect of urbanization on the environment. This exhibition concentrates on her analysis of the impact suburbs have had on nature, and is a selection of photographic works from three series: ‘Model Homes’, a succession of frontal portraits of suburban homes; ‘Excavations’, ground-level views of suburban groupings and the soil surrounding them; and ‘Destinations’, large-scale depictions of the coexistence of human habitats and their natural surroundings.

Each photographic work by Isabelle Hayeur incorporates several images, using Adobe® Photoshop® software to form an apparently seamless representation. The smoothness with which she integrates views of sometimes widely differing perspectives and scales is such that it takes a moment to realize that what she is offering is an elaborate, artificial construction, not a natural scene. We have to look at these works with a mental lens that has to adapt its focus back and forth, and in the process we come to understand that issues that appear disconnected are, in fact, related to one another.

Hayeur’s work is militant in spirit, and it is interesting to see that her technique of composition of the image recalls an earlier contentious period in art - the time that produced the photomontages of the avant-gardes of the first decades of the twentieth century. There too, the essential mode of articulation was to bring together, on the same surface, cut-outs from photographs of various realities; to let them produce discordant effects to reflect the clash of forces of modern society. There is a difference, however, that time has made. Then the debate centered on the sharing of resources of a plentiful planet. Now, at the beginning of the twenty-first century, when it looks as if Alfred Hitchcock is going to be in charge of the weather, it is the fate of the planet itself that is the object of debate.