After fleeing the violence of Europe in 1944, the French surrealist André Breton came to the Gaspé Peninsula and wrote the book Arcanum 17, which used the crumbling beauty of nearby Percé Rock as a metaphor for the indestructibility of life. In light of humankind’s looming efforts to annihilate itself, his book proclaimed the superiority of women, arguing that only feminine ideals would bring peace to the planet, and that ultimately only love and art would allow humanity to flourish. In The Light Gleams an Instant, Then It’s Night Once More, Jonah Samson contemplates Breton’s book through the transformation of a series of found photographs sourced from eBay.

Jonah Samson creates work that merges photographic, filmic and painterly processes. Absurdist theatre and literature are often referenced in his evocation of the bizarre and offbeat. His work has been exhibited in North America, the United States and Internationally. Samson is currently based in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia.