Liliana Porter often works with objects, toys and figurines found in flea markets and antiquity shops. She gives them a new life, making them protagonists in theatrical vignettes that are at once poetic and poignant.

Porter's first solo show in France runs at  Mor-Charpentier Galerie in Paris. The title of the exhibition, The Colour Red, plays on our perceptive ambiguities. Red is a colour associated with both passion and joy but also suffering and death. In the same way, the creative universe of Argentinian Liliana Porter calls for the subjective engagement of the viewer.

The small figurines in Porter's installations live in a big and often-empty space. Paradoxically, considering their minuscule dimensions, such an expressive choice invites closer attention. Each piece has one figurine intent on an enormous task. Their characters are women knitting incredibly big scarves, builders hammering massive walls, or painters filling an out-of-proportion canvas.

Although retaining a certain playful quality, these works have a strong evocative power and they also conjure up the sense of existential fragility embedded in the human condition.

'I am interested in the simultaneity of humour and distress, banality and the possibility of meaning,' Porter says.

The Colour Red is showing at Mor-Charpentier Galerie in Paris until 27 October 2012.

Galerie Mor-Charpentier
8 rue Saint-Claude,
Paris, 75003

Images courtesy of the artist and Galerie Mor-Charpentier.