Once Upon a Timeless

By Suzanne Révy

My mortality has been a more forceful presence since turning sixty a couple of years ago. The ephemeral nature of life is not as abstract an idea as it was in my twenties. I thought I had all the time in the world back then, but the decades have spun past with dizzying speed. And yet, I take comfort in the eternal presence of the earth and her environment. Alexandra de Steiguer’s new work, Stories: Once Upon a Timeless, on view at Pucker Gallery in Boston through June 23rd, 2024, addresses the transitory facets of both life and time, presented in sumptuous silver gelatin and archival pigment black and white prints.

“Stories: Chapter 1” by Alexandra de Steiguer, 2010, archival pigment print,  from the exhibition Stories: Once Upon a Timeless, courtesy of the artist and Pucker Gallery, Boston, MA.

Accompanied by a story about a woman entering an abandoned structure, de Steiguer invites viewers to contemplate solitude and the impermanence of our existence through the rugged, isolated landscape of the small island where she resides as caretaker each winter. The presence of ghosted figures achieved through longer shutter speeds creates an aura in the work that is poignant, haunting, and yet comforting. These alluring and peaceful pictures are transporting and timeless. 

“Passagers” by Alexandra de Steiguer, 2023, gelatin silver print, from the exhibition Stories: Once Upon a Timeless, courtesy of the artist and Pucker Gallery, Boston, MA.

“Here” by Alexandra de Steiguer, 2013, gelatin silver print, from the exhibition Stories: Once Upon a Timeless, courtesy of the artist and Pucker Gallery, Boston, MA.

Star Island is home to an antiquated wooden hotel, and de Steiguer uses the structure, the porch and the hallways to narrate a tale of summers gone by, reminiscent of Stephen King’s novel The Shining without any of the menace. Her faint figures in a hallway or translucent hand over the hotel’s registry reverberate with the traces of those who visited here. If only the walls could talk. 

“Stories: Chapter 9” by Alexandra de Steiguer, 2010, gelatin silver print, from the exhibition Stories: Once Upon a Timeless, courtesy of the artist and Pucker Gallery, Boston, MA.

“They Hold Time Lightly” by Alexandra de Steiguer, 2023, gelatin silver print, from the exhibition Stories: Once Upon a Timeless, courtesy of the artist and Pucker Gallery, Boston, MA.

A figure on a beachhead is echoed by a distant lighthouse, a sentry conjuring a sense of history while awaiting the future. De Steiguer’s landscapes evoke geological time, that sense of vastness that brings a feeling of security in the knowledge that this island, these rocks, trees, grass and the vast ocean have witnessed the entirety of our brief human experience. The emotional resonance of her work is a salve to the divisive times in which we live. Feeling that we are part of something extraordinary on this blue earth is a common human emotion. Even as it makes us feel small and insignificant, it proffers the reassuring notion that we are part of something that is weightier and more profound than any single individual. De Steiguer has tapped into an eternal flame on Star Island. 

“To Singe the White Head” by Alexandra de Steiguer, 2024, archival pigment print, from the exhibition Stories: Once Upon a Timeless, courtesy of the artist and Pucker Gallery, Boston, MA.

For more information: https://www.puckergallery.com

Feature Image:“Fleeting Respite” by Alexandra de Steiguer, 2023, from the exhibition Stories: Once Upon a Timeless, courtesy of the artist and Pucker Gallery, Boston, MA.