A striking conceptual work by Annette Lemieux, featuring a photographic fragment of a uniformed figure set against bold, geometric black and white stripes.

Annette Lemieux is known for her use of found imagery and objects to explore themes of history, memory, and political authority. This work features a stark, high-contrast composition that juxtaposes a photographic fragment with bold, geometric abstraction. The upper-left quadrant contains a grainy, black-and-white image of a figure in a military-style uniform, their arms outstretched in a gesture that remains ambiguous. The remainder of the composition is dominated by wide, horizontal black and white bands, which evoke the visual language of a flag or a redacted document.

By isolating the figure from its original context, Lemieux forces the viewer to consider the nature of power and the way images are consumed. The uniform serves as a symbol of institutional control, yet its partial obscuration by the graphic stripes prevents a singular reading. The work operates through a process of decontextualisation, where the artist strips away the narrative surrounding the original photograph to focus on the formal qualities of the image itself. The heavy, flat black bands create a sense of weight and finality, contrasting with the softer, more textured quality of the photographic source material.

Lemieux often employs this strategy of appropriation to examine how symbols function within a culture. The interplay between the representational figure and the abstract stripes creates a tension that is characteristic of her practice. The work does not offer a clear message, but rather presents a set of visual cues that invite the viewer to question the authority of the image. The print is executed with a clean, minimalist aesthetic, ensuring that the focus remains on the conceptual relationship between the two distinct visual elements. This piece is a representative example of how Lemieux uses minimal means to address complex social and historical subjects.