Left: "Le meilleur jour de ta vie," portrait of Claude, Temiscouata, Quebec, 2017. Right: "Kitsch nails," Bacalar, Mexico, 2016. By Benoît Paillé
In one popular series that has been referenced repeatedly in the art of others, Paillé hangs a plastic square the incandescent white of the sun in the centre of empty landscapes (ravaged forests, snowy fields) that look as though they’ve been conjured by dreams, or by drugs. In another, titled “Surreal Mexico,” the sea off Quintana Roo is radioactive soup beneath twisted pink branches; Paillé’s camper van drifts amid a herd of bioluminescent sheep and bounds across a scrubland in the electric dusk. Sometimes disordered limbs jut out of fluorescent bushes and drops of rain hover in the air like fireflies. Sometimes fences and traffic poles rear up, brilliant and immense, from the earth like primordial totems. Unknown people at a rainbow gathering, or a beach resort, or Kumbha Mela, or in their own yard, dispassionately inhabit the artifice. The scenes are in many ways perfectly mundane, only they’ve been filtered through the mind and come out on the other side of the camera as a psychedelic wax museum.'The idea is to do as little as possible for a lot of money so that I can get back to my own stuff'
“Alternative Landscapes” series, Parc National de la Mauricie, Quebec, 2012. By Benoît Paillé
He received me in pizza-print leggings and a belted navy-blue coat that’s seen better days. “I’ve been told that if I don’t seem homeless it’s only because I have nice skin,” he said, stroking his own face. Often Paillé wears grimy construction or mechanic uniforms, or pieces of vestiary art—T-shirts grafted onto other T-shirts—made by an ex-lover, and fantastically shaped and coloured prescription glasses ordered online from China. He occupies space chaotically, testing the limits of people and objects, destroying things that don’t stand up to his restless prodding. Occasionally he will laugh so hard that he starts to wheeze and spit and roll around on the ground, but mostly he’s quiet and alone. His truest love is reserved for his dog, Pulga, a blond mutt whom he trained with great care so that he would never have to go anywhere without her.'I've been told that if I don't seem homeless it's only because I have nice skin'
A photo from the "Surreal Mexico" series featuring Paillé’s old camper van, 2016. By Benoît Paillé

In which Paillé spits beer in front of the camera, Tofino, British Columbia, 2015