Isabelle Cornaro’s series of 10 wall paintings Reproductions are based on her 16mm movie Floues et Colorées (Hazy and Colorful). In the film Cornaro documents the quick and spontaneous execution of 10 small spray painted works from the viewpoint of the artist. Reproductions are then the enlarged versions of the paintings within the film with variable dimensions that are based on the size of the walls on which the works are realized. Playing with the idea of the autonomy of an artwork, Cornaro’s use of remediation calls attention to the act of painting as an attempt to reproduce something which already exists but in another shape and medium: a film of a painting and a painting of a film.

The works also call to mind the early films of innovator Oskar Fischingers, who famously paired moving shapes and forms with the contemporary music of the day creating a harmonious interplay of sounds and abstract visuals. These films, often referred to as “optical poems” referenced landscapes and monochromes, abstractions and geometry, in many of the same ways Cornaro’s films reference these same typologies of painting.