The Fountainel Series


Illustration of Fountainel Channel on an architectural scale
Fountainel Channel,
20’ h x 40” w x 3” d,
pigment print on acrylic, LED


Fountainel Series from Thérèse Lahaie


Fontanel Channel, 2017Pigment Print on film, LED Lighting9’ h x 29” w x 2.5” d
Fountainel Channel, 2017
Pigment Print on film, LED Lighting
9’ h x 29” w x 2.5” d


Fountainel Mandala, 2018
Pigment Print on film, Programmed LED lighting,
9’ h x 29” w x 2.5” d


Fountainel Indra’s Net, 2018
Pigment Print on film, LED Lighting,
9’ h x 29” w x 2.5”



Fountainel Indra Bold, 2018
Pigment Print on Fabric, LED Lighting,
9’ h x 29”
The Fountainel Series

Images from the Fountainel Series, described as mysterious, suggest something biological, a bony structure or a multicolored blowup of DNA. There are also suggestions of mandalas, neural pathways, waterways, and fascia, referencing the networks that connect us.
The image is based on a Tibetan purification practice in which light enters and fills the body to cleanse mental and physical obstacles. 

A sampling of artwork in the Fountainel series. Fountainel Mandala incorporates programmable light whose changing colors move in a dynamic stream, filling, fading, and emptying in a cyclical rhythm.
Photograms:
Photograms are photographic images made without a camera.  
Sheets of glass and other objects are placed directly onto the surface
of photosensitive paper or film and then exposed to light.


Photonic Seed Positive Negative
Photonic Seed Positive Negative
Digital Pigment Print, 26” x 40”, 2002, edition of 6





             
A result of experimentation in the darkroom during a fellowship at the Kala Institute in Berkeley, California, these works offer a new visual cosmology by combining light with the transparent,
textured architectural glass that is used in my sculptures.

The photograms, which expose glass to the light, transform invisible worlds into visible ones.
Intricate landscapes and strange homunculi (tiny human beings) are revealed inside the air bubbles of the glass.
Enlargement of the images inside the glass bubbles extended the cosmic fields being referenced by means of photons: packets of light that move from the core of the sun into the Earth's atmosphere.


✺✺


Using the sun's movement to generate shadows and silhouettes, I am currently etching with light and line on an architecturalscale. These studies, both time-based and static, move in three dimensions. The drawings on the glass reflect and transmit light to combine with line and texture. 

These images are of assemblages of projected light, drawing on glass, photograms, and scoured mirrors




Works on Paper


Crossing Signal Mandala
Layered acetate, vellum, mylar, paper on board
48" h x 48" w x 1.50" variable, 2012
Pigment Prints on Paper or Backlit Film available

Mandalas are two-dimensional representations of a three-dimensional environment. For example, "Crossing Signal Mandala" comprises a system of streetlights and crossing signals that govern our movements. These mundane images were enhanced by the saturated light, color, and patterns of the photographic documentation.  Each of the icons was assigned a symbolic function loosely based on the five Buddha Families of Tibetan Buddhism.  The five icons correspond to a color, element, compass point, and season.

The pedestrian crossing icons form a mandala according to the following system:

Crossing Signal Color
Green Light
Walk Man
Yellow Light
Red Light/Hand
Snowman
Element Wind
Water
Earth
Fire
Air
Direction
North
East
South
West
Center
Season
Summer
Winter
Autumn
Spring
Sky






Animations


Dotted Man Manifestations Drawings on B&W photocopies, 2016

A series of drawings of photocopies are animated to find out what
Pedestrian Crossing Signals do when their shift is over.



Pure Vaj  Drawings on B &W photocopies, 2016

A series of drawings on photocopies are animated to determine what happens when
Pedestrian Crossing Signals practice Tibetan Purification visualizations.
Nocturnes

In the 'Nocturne' sculptures, light is projected through the glass onto a slowly moving scrim, casting shadows that expand and contract. The name derives from J. M Whistler's dusk-time paintings. Mesmerized by Whistler's landscapes at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston, MA, the artist responds with a contemporary restatement of the poetic atmosphere with sculpted planes of muted color, slow and repeating movements, and shifting shadows and reflections.




Conceptual rendering of Pale Blue Nocturne on an architectural scale
Pale Blue Nocturne,
5’ h x 7’ w x 12” d,
architectural glass, stainless steel, vinyl membrane, motor, Delrin



Pale Blue Nocturne



Cassini’s Nocturne in Silverblue
  Cassini Nocturne references the 17th Century French philosopher who discovered
why the sun looks flat when it is on the horizon.



Vajra Nocturne
glass/metal/mixed media
22 X 30 X 7 inches



Vajra Ocean Nocturne
glass, LEDs, stainless steel, scoured mirror, vinyl membrane, Delrin motor
18 X 32 X 6.25 inches



Nocturne in Blue and Green
laminated glass, aluminum, Delrin, vinyl membrane, low RPM motors
42” h x 47” w x 7.5” d, 2008

Commissioning Agency: TMG Partners, permanent installation TMG Partners Property San Jose.




Nocturne Triptych in Blues and Golds
glass, vinyl membrane, low RPM motor
21.25” h x 123” w x 6.5” d, 2007

New York Times Art Critic, Benjamin Genocchio said:
“The combination of motor, glass and light creates the illusion of waves
ebbing and the flowing of an ocean tide… the visual effects are beautiful and even hypnotic.”






Silver Gray Nocturne Triptych
stainless steel, aluminum, Delrin, acrylic, stretch fabric, low RPM motor, water and seedy glass
21″h x 93.5 “w x 6.25″d, 2005
Corning Museum of Glass Contemporary Collection


Nocturne Squall
glass, vinyl membrane, LEDs, low RPM motor
13.25″h x 30 “w x 6.25″d


Transparent Nocturne
tempered glass, aluminum, remote motorized light unit
38” h x 53” w x 7” d, 2011



Olive Nocturne
glass, vinyl membrane, steel, low RPM motor
22” h x 40” w x 7” d, 2008

Commission: Olive 8 – Hyatt Hotel, Seattle, WA, 2008
Description: In the “Nocturne” series, light is projected through glass onto slowly moving scrims, casting shadows that expand and contract. In this sculpture, gray and gold glass is layered to create a third color, olive green.