In Pol Pierart’s photographic work, the simplicity and immediacy of the black-and-white medium makes it easier to read the image, to decipher words and humor. Small white signs, placed next to objects with which they interact, or presented against the backdrop of exterior views, reveal short sentences that function as slogans, maxims or expressions, subtly hijacked by the use of homophony. In other images, following the artist’s practice in painting, a word is transformed by rewriting certain letters or using a different spelling to open up a double reading. The artist’s immediate environment, his living environment and the objects that surround him provide the support for his reflections. So it’s only logical that he sometimes puts himself on stage, not wishing to shy away from this vision of humanity whose problems and contradictions he pinpoints, in tender satire or more bitingly when stigmatizing the social or even political situation. The works, like the thread of life, move from the most trivial, frivolous register to the most serious, often imbued with poetry. And while the images are based on the principle of wordplay, they nevertheless invite the viewer, in the process of deciphering them, to summon up his or her own experience, as they are constructed from those anecdotes that punctuate the daily life of each and every one of us. (Anne Wauters)