Entering the main room of Boréart, one can hardly miss this colorful installation reminiscent of a child’s bedroom. However, you have to get closer to realize that in the cradle there is a doll covered in bright red. Title of the work: The one-child policy.
“(In China) there have been forced abortions in order to get rid of girls. I was inspired by the testimony of a man who, in a documentary, said he found a dead fetus in a plastic bag thrown under a bridge. This is what I wanted to reproduce,” explained Florence Michaud, who herself was adopted from Mao’s country.
“The idea was to play on irony and cruelty, with a kind of baby shower macabre.”
Florence Michaud spent a good part of the opening explaining the process behind an installation that was striking to say the least. (Catherine Trudeau/La Voix de l’Est)
For this end of DEC project, teacher Jérôme Trudelle asked his students to produce a work translating as faithfully as possible their artistic identity. Florence Michaud is far from the only one to have been inspired by her own story.
Aucéanne Labbé needed six hours to install a sculpture whose head is replaced by woolen threads attached to the ceiling.
“I have a lot of panic attacks, so my intention was to represent the mental load created by work, study, family and everything else that happens in life. You have so much pressure that you lose the son, you feel like your head is going to explode. It ends up affecting your environment, and that’s why my work takes up a lot of space,” she summed up, with great generosity.
A few steps away were the large format photos of Maëlle Lacroix, which are presented in a vintage setting. Some will soon recognize some ex-employees of The Voice of the East…
Teacher Jérôme Trudelle (top left) and technician Micheline Hauver (right) seemed satisfied with the work accomplished by their protégés. In the top row: Laurent Duhamel, Éliane Côté-Lemire, Chad Duranleau, Florence Michaud, Magaly Deslandes, Marie-Laurence Lamoureux, Lucas Dion and Aucéanne Labbé. Bottom: Gérémie Pomerleau, Aurélie Coursol, Sara Lefebvre and Maëlle Lacroix. (Catherine Trudeau/La Voix de l’Est)
When descending from the stage, visitors must go around the pile of paintings destroyed and “abandoned” by Magaly Deslandes. They also inevitably come across the four collages by Laurent Duhamel.
To end this overview on a bright note, let’s talk about the “lipstick on canvas” created by Marie-Laurence Lamoureux. The latter reproduced a photo of her body, boudoir style, before affixing dozens and dozens of kisses. All in order to represent the theme of self-love.
“I am convinced that loving ourselves can help us take off and do something good in life,” said Marie-Laurence.
Amalgam, so it’s a little bit of all that at the same time. The exhibition will continue until June 9 at Boréart.
This is in fact a prosperous period for the entire Arts, Letters and Communication program at Cégep de Granby. The exhibition New York punk: between desires and disordertaken from a recent stay in the Big Apple, will be presented Monday evening in room C300.
Students in the cinema profile will receive actor David La Haye, who has agreed to play in one of their films, on Tuesday May 21. In addition to an on-stage interview, several screenings are planned as part of the Spotlight on Cinema event, which is however not open to the public.
