Verdure

July 8 - August 26
Verdure: Alexandre Castonguay, Michel de Broin, Michel de Broin + Ève K Tremblay, Dil Hildebrand, Louis Joncas, Marie-Jeanne Musiol, Annie Thibault, Luc Courchesne, Marie-Josée Laframboise and Ed Pien

Pierre-François Ouellette art contemporain is pleased to present its summer exhibition Verdure, which runs from July 8 to August 26, 2006. This exhibition includes photo-based work, video installation, drawing and painting by Michel de Broin, Alexandre Castonguay, Luc Courchesne, Dil Hildebrand, Louis Joncas, Marie-Josée Laframboise, Marie-Jeanne Musiol, Ed Pien and Annie Thibault. Vedure explores the complex relationships between seeing and representing nature by focusing on the motifs of the forest and the tree – as well as their constituent parts. Artistic interventions within forested areas resonate with perceptual, spatial or mythological undertones in some of the photo-based work on display in Verdure. In other instances, photography and video installation point to the ways in which our perceptions of nature can be mediated through technology. Hand-drawn silhouettes and painted depictions of trees evoke arboreal settings in the remaining pieces in the exhibition, although viewers remain acutely aware that what they see are only allusions to the idea of these places.

The intention of Verdure is not to bring together seamlessly mimetic renderings of forest and flora. On the contrary, it hopes to draw attention to the varying degrees to which our understanding of nature is visually and culturally constructed. In the process, it addresses a wide range of artistic practices that intersect along certain lines of interest.

Alexandre Castonguay

Alexandre Castonguay latest work, entitled Tree, is a video sculpture constructed of small LCD screens, arranged to approximate the height and shape of a tree planted in a steel surround of an urban setting. Each screen in the composition shows a looped sequence of close-up footage of the respective section in the natural space. The recorded images flicker slightly during the loop, creating a sensation that vacillates between still photography and video, mirroring the fluctuations in perception between the appearance of reality and its simulation inherent to the work. In selecting an object that is seemingly banal, part of the scenery as it were, Castonguay prompts the viewer to see the everyday in a new light, rendered “worthy” of contemplation through technology and its seductive beauty.

Moreover, Tree prompts larger questions about how much of our current experiences are mediated through frames such as television, film, advertising and computer screens. What is the difference then between a “real” tree and a tree that emulates it, duplicates its presence or even betters the encounter by bringing it out of the landscape entirely and places it into an environment that can be better fashioned to suit the needs of the viewer over the practical questions of growing and tending horticulture? By way of its quiet simplicity, Tree prompts the viewer to question whether the perception of the real in time and space has been irrevocably altered by technology, thereby necessitating an entirely new mode of understanding for our interactions with our environments.

Through his use of new technologies and digital art, Alexandre Castonguay explores both the applications and the limits of these media. He creates, for instance, technological environments in which the observer is acutely aware of his own relationship to the work of art. Referencing design, technological production and art history serves the twofold purpose of anchoring his art to these traditions and of questioning the expectations and beliefs that are associated with them. Not only does Castonguay work with digital photography and interactive installations, he also contributes to the development of Open Source software.

For the past 10 years or so, Alexandre Castonguay has produced a multidisciplinary body of work centred around digital photography, video, computerized installation and the Internet. A native of the Outaouais region, where he lives and works, Castonguay teaches in the Department of Visual Arts at the University of Ottawa. He is also a founding member and the artistic director of Artengine, a website run by and for visual and media artists. A politically committed artist, he contributes to developing the field of free software. He has participated in numerous solo and group exhibitions in Québec, across Canada and abroad, notably in New York, Los Angeles, Santiago and Mexico City. In 2004, he won the Graff Award instituted in memory of Pierre Ayot. For more information on Alexandre Castonguay's work and on open source codes please consult artengine.ca

Michel de Broin: Planque

Michel de Broin: Superficielle

« Upon invitation to reflect on the notion of transparency that led me into the forest to envelop the contour of a large stone with fragments of mirror. The large stone, tucked away deep in the woods, became a reflective surface for its surroundings. In this play of splintered radiance, the rock disappears in its reflections. Because it reflects one cannot be mislead by its presence, yet we cannot seize it, rather it is the rock that reflects us. »

Michel de Broin + Ève K. Tremblay: Honeymoons

In Honeymoons, artists Eve K. Tremblay and Michel de Broin team up to produce a photographic work exploring the tension that animates the encounter of two singular worlds. "We've travelled together several times, in an experimental frame of mind, each of us becoming for the other an object of fascination. These peregrinations were opportunities to study invisible phenomena through which information is silently transmitted. All these honeymoons, repeated over and over again, are voyages toward the other. They've become our way of seeking out the extraordinary in the everyday. Honeymoons sets in motion a balance, which is constantly re-obtained by way of an arsenal of signs that transmits a kind of magnetic field through which two mammals are able to love one another." What comes out of this duo's artistic project is a captivating exploration of the invisible topography of love.

Born in 1970, Michel de Broin lives and works in Berlin, and he obtained his master's degree in visual arts from Université du Québec à Montréal in 1997. His most recent exhibitions solos have been at Kunstlerhaus Bethanien, Berlin (2006); Musée National des Beaux-Arts du Québec; Réparations (2006), Galerie Isabella Bortolezzi, Berlin (2005); Tenir sans servir c’est résister, BF15, parcours associé à la biennale de Lyon (2005); Galerie Pierre-François Ouellette, Montreal (2005); La Vitrine, Paris (2003); Galerie 44, Toronto (two-person show with Ève K. Tremblay, 2003); Villa Merkel, Esslingen, Germany (2002) and the Centre des arts actuels Skol, Montréal (1999).

Eve K. Tremblay is a Montreal artist born in 1972. After studying French Litterature then theatre in New York (1994-95), Eve k. Tremblay completes a BFA at Concordia University in 2000 in Montreal. She has exhibited nationaly and internationaly.She was awarded grants by the Canada counsil for the arts as well as the Conseil des Arts et des lettres du Québec among which a residency at the iaab-Christoph-Merian artist residency in Basel (2003) and a residency at the CEAAC in Strasbourg (2005-06). Her work has been published in art magazines such as CV photo, Ciel Variable, Sprirale , EtC, Parachute, Esse, Border Crossing, and Mix Magazine.

Dil Hildebrand

For 10 years Dil Hildebrand has created theatrical scenery for film, television and theatre, and it is from these environments that he draws inspiration for his work. This context allows him to take a mediated approach to his portrayal of nature, where the wilderness becomes an artificial stage intended for narrative interaction. Just as optical tricks and simulation are required to create these types of spectacle, he uses the qualities of his materials and various points of view to build an abstraction of nature that is filtered through and framed by the conventions of entertainment media.

Dil Hildebrand was born in Winnipeg. He obtained his Bachelors degree in Visual Arts from Concordia University in 1998, and is currently a Master's in Visual Arts candidate at Concordia. He lives and works in Montreal.

Louis Joncas

Louis Joncas gives a contemporary turn to the traditionally painterly themes of the still life and vanitas. Working with photography, Joncas depicts the habits and excesses of consumer society, namely by highlighting the waste generated by such everyday actions as eating, cleaning, and buying. Joncas also explores notions of vanitas and memento mori in landscape. The isolation of fragments of nature and their thrust into the foreground obliges the onlooker to contemplate them in a context that encourages reflection of one's own existence.

Marie-Jeanne Musiol

Whether it is through the portrait, the landscape, or electromagnetic photography, Marie-Jeanne Musiol explores different levels of the image's emergence on paper and the limits of photographic representation. She endeavours to capture the intangible qualities of her subjects through black and white photography. Concerned with the relationship between matter, energy, and memory, Musiol's work has led her to the Kirlian process, which captures the energy field of objects that have been subjected to an electromagnetic-wave discharge. Musiol further develops this idea into what she describes as "a directory of energy configurations in which the imprint of objects and thought-forms modifying living things is encoded in light."

Marie-Jeanne Musiol's photographic installations have been exhibited in galleries and museums in Canada and abroad : Galerie Aubes, Montreal (1988); The Canadian Cultural Centre, Rome (1989); The Canadian Museum of Contemporary Photography, Ottawa (1992, 1993); the Liana and Danny Taran Gallery, Montreal (1994); Vox image contemporaine, Montreal (1995); The Leonard and Bina Ellen Gallery, Montreal (1995); Galerie Yves LeRoux, Montreal (1996); the Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec, Québec City (1996); Les Brasseurs, Liège, Belgium and Centre d'Art Santa Mònica, Barcelona (1996); Le Mois de la Photo, Montreal (1997); Gallery 44, Toronto (1996,1999,2004); The Montreal Commemorative Center for the Holocaust (2000); Dazibao, Montreal (2001); The Ottawa Art Gallery (1993, 2001,2002,2003); AxeNéo7, Gatineau (1991, 2002); The Armando Museum, Amersfoort, Holland (2002); the Musée d'art urbain, Montreal (2002/2004); Pierre-François Ouellette art contemporain, Montreal (2003, 2006); La Galerie des Grands Bains Douches, Marseille, France (2003); Oboro, Montreal (2005); The Montreal Botanical Garden (2005); ZKM, Karlsruhe, Germany (2005), Conde Duque Medialab, Madrid; V2/Tent, Rotterdam; Ludwig Museum, Budapest and La Maison Européenne de la photographie, Paris (2006).

Annie Thibault

Annie Thibault's work is inspired by an aesthetic of life in which art, science, and nature overlap. Her multidisciplinary artistic practice includes drawing, sculpture, installation, photography, and video. Making use of tools and technical resources from various biochemical and microbiological research centres, Thibault uses organic matter as artistic material, distilling it into a universe imbued with mystery. She brings to light laboratory objects and alchemy, oscillating in her practice between reason and intuition.

Since 1995, Thibault has been creating living shapes in bottles or petri dishes; installations that contain life; and drawings composed of fungus and bacteria. Captivated by invisible life in air and water, she works in the invisible. "I started out by working with seaweed, and later explored the many textures and colours of mould," Thibault states. "Then I started to draw with bacteria on agar. It involves both planning and improvisation, as all I see at the moment of creation is the tool tracing an invisible image."

Annie Thibault lives and works in Gatineau, Quebec. She completed studies in pure science and obtained her Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the Université du Québec à Hull. A recipient of the Claudia De Hueck Fellowship in Art and Science in 1998, she was also recently awarded the gold medal for sculpture at the Jeux de la Francophonie. The artist's work is also in the collection of the Musée du Québec and the City of Ottawa.

Luc Courchesne

Luc Courchesne took part in the emergence of media arts twenty-five years ago, when, as a video artist inspired by a generation of experimental filmmakers including Michael Snow and Hollis Frampton, he discovered computer technologies. First delving into interactive portraiture — a great artistic tradition re-articulated in a new mould — his work has recently turned to another important genre, that of landscape. With his installations, "panoscopic" images, and a device of his own making used to create a sense of visual immersion, he transforms the spectator into a visitor whom he leads, like Alice, through the looking glass.

Luc Courchesne was born in 1952 in St-Léonard d'Aston, Québec. He studied at the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design, Halifax (Bachelor of Design in Communication, 1974), and at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge (Master of Science in Visual Studies, 1984). He began his explorations in interactive video in 1984 when he co-authored Elastic Movies, one of the earliest experiement in the field with Ellen Sebring, Benjamin Bergery, Bill Seaman and others. He has since produced several installations including Encyclopedia Chiaroscuro (1987), Portrait One (1990), Family Portrait (1993), Hall of Shadows (1996), Landscape One (1997), Passages (1998), Rendez-vous (1999) and The Visitor: Living by Numbers (2001). His work has been shown extensively in galleries and museums worldwide: Sydney's Art Gallery of New South Wales, New York's Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo's InterCommunication Center (ICC), Paris' La Villette, Karlsruhe's ZKM/Medienmuseum, Montréal's Musée d'art contemporain... His installations are part of the collections of the National Gallery of Canada (Ottawa), the ZKM/Medienmuseum (Karlsruhe), the NTT Intercommuncation Center (Tokyo) and of the Museum of Communication (Bern). Luc Courchesne was awarded the Grand Prix of the ICC Biennale '97 in Tokyo and an Award of Distinction at Pris Ars Electronica 1999 in Linz, Austria. Based in Montreal, Luc Courchesne is professor of design at Université de Montréal and president of the Society for Art and Technology. For more information on Luc Courchesne's work, consult: http://www.din.umontreal.ca/courchesne

Marie-Josée Laframboise

The point of departure for Marie-Josée Laframboise's sculpture or in situ project is, above all, the manipulation and alteration of materials, as well as their flexibility in a given space. The location becomes a space to target, to invade, or to occupy with the chosen material. Network, route, web, and mesh are all reoccurring notions in her projects. Drawing is a constant engine of exploration and reflection, taking its form from previous installations, or from those still to come, and is inspired by juxtaposed images of different sites. Drawing becomes a kind of fictional extrapolation of reality.

Born in Quebec, Marie-Josée Laframboise lives and works in Montreal (Quebec, Canada). A graduate of the MFA programme at Concordia University (Montreal, 2002) and the Glasgow School of Art (Scotland, 2000), she has exhibited professionally since 1992. In addition to Canada, her in situ installations were presented on several occasions in Switzerland, in Germany, in Austria in group exhibitions, residences or symposiums. Her works are in the following collections: Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec, Foundation Christoph Merian (Basel, Switzerland) and Migros Klubschule (Basle, Switzerland). The Musée d’art moderne et d’art contemporain de Nice presented a solo show of her work this Spring.

Ed Pien

Ed Pien's work is inspired by Asian mythology and Western history. Pien's drawings are highly expressive and spontaneous creations. His drawings conjure up a fantastic and disturbing universe that recalls the works of Hieronymus Bosch and Francisco Goya. Ed Pien also creates sensual, drawing-based installations using ink and translucent paper. The spectator is invited to walk into these floor-to-ceiling environments and approach the half-human, half-animal monsters within.

Ed Pien was born in Taipei, Taiwan and moved to Canada when he was 11 years old. He received his BFA from the University of Western Ontario in 1982 and his MFA from York University in 1984. Since 1981, his work, both playful and sensuous, has been the subject of many exhibits such as The New Paradise, Taiwan (1977) ; The Drawing Centre, New York (2000) ; La Biennale de Montréal (2000 and 2002) ; W139, Amsterdam (2000) ; The Contemporary Art Gallery, Vancouver (2000) ; The Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art, Toronto (2001) ; Museo de Arte y Diseno Contemporaneo, Costa Rica (2001) ; The Canadian Cultural Centre, Paris (2001) ; Middlesbrough Art Gallery, Great Britain (2002) ; The Ottawa Art Gallery (2003) ; Pierre-François Ouellette art contemporain, Montreal (2002) ; Prüss & Ochs Gallery, Berlin (2004).