PM/AM Gallery, London
Nicolas Lebeau
For Art-o-rama, Would you wear my eyes? by Nicolas Lebeau is reconfigured from it’s initial presentation at Galerie Mennour (March 2026), through the ongoing accumulation of images sourced from Telegram channels, where scenes of disaster circulate without interruption.
The title, drawn from Bob Kaufman, suggests a transfer that exceeds metaphor: to see through another’s eyes is to inherit images that persist beyond the moment of viewing. These fragments are embedded within the artist’s photographs, producing not a simple layering but a form of contamination. Recurring figures emerge – an exhausted eye, a hand testing the surface of things, faces resisting dispersal – forming a loose typology that unfolds across the installation.
Produced between France and Brazil over the past six months, the works unfold through three operations. Some prints are generated using modified machines, introducing ruptures and defects, then overlaid with collected fragments and mounted directly onto steel rails or floating inside plexiglass boxes. Others are disrupted at the level of code through data-editing processes and contained within wooden frames. In contrast, small portraits of women in prayer remain unaltered, introducing brief intervals of stillness.
Sculptural elements – melted glass bottles and deterrent devices derived from anti-climb structures – extend this tension into space, registering pressure and obstruction. A pixel red camo covering, echoing the pixelated nature of the images and supporting the artist’s idea of hiding things in plain sight, is added to the edges of the walls.
The installation operates as a set of conditions: images that resist resolution, objects that regulate movement, and moments of pause that do not restore coherence.
