Catalogue > At random

"Private Views" creates a parallel between two starkly different worlds: the wretchedness of the destitute and the conspicuous consumer lifestyle of the nouveaux riches. The video explores the themes of social inequalities, real estate speculation, and dispossession. It documents the decline of some North American cities and casts a critical eye on the emergence of wealthy new suburbs. These private residential enclaves are often gated and under surveillance. Their luxury homes, with their dubious architectural style, are the reflection of a world dominated by appearances, consumption, and social conformity.

Isabel Hayeur is a visual artist, born in Montreal in 1969. She gets a fine arts master degree from the University of Quebec in Montreal in 2002. Her work consists in large photographic montages, videos and in situ installations. She?s the cofounder of the collective ?Perte de Signal?, which exhibited young media artists in international festivals. Her researches focus on the changes in the city planning, showing natural-looking landscapes which are actually totally artificial. Her work is internationally shown in festivals, museums and exhibitions, as the Museum of Fine Arts of Québec (2006), ?Les Rencontres Internationales de la Photographie? in Arles (2006), the Museum of Fine Arts of Canada, the ?Fonds National d?Art Contemporain? of Paris, the Contemporary Art Museum of Montréal, and the Museum of Contemporary Photography of Chicago (MoCP).