Opening: ππππππππ‘/πΏ'πππ π‘ππππππ‘πΜ de GeneviΓ¨ve Chevalier
November 22, 2023, to January 20, 2024
Opening November 22 at 5 PM
Artist: Geneviève Chevalier
Curator: Marie-Hélène Leblanc
Exhibition produced as part of the CIΓCO Research and Inquiry Groupβs Partnership πππ€ ππ ππ ππ πΆππππππ‘ππππ ππ π΄ππ‘ ππ’π ππ’ππ , with the support of the Team Art and museum.
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The term towering used in navigation is defined as the refractory optical effect that makes distant objects look taller than they are.
πππ€πππππ/πΌππ π‘ππππππ‘π¦, presented at Galerie UQO as the third and final iteration of ππππππππ‘/πππ€πππππ, is the result of research that Chevalier conducted on the south coast of England and in London during a residency at ACME Studio in summer 2022. In this project, she seeks to establish a conceptual and formal relationship between instances of geological and economic erosion that, though distinct in nature, are closely linked.
πππ€πππππ/πΌππ π‘ππππππ‘π¦ holds up a kind of mirror to the concept developed in Towering/The Menagerie (2021); through video, photography, and text, it juxtaposes the phenomenon of erosion of the Jurassic Coast with that of economic instability. Both contingencies are based on a false premise: the notion of ever available and unlimited resources. Through the works presented in the exhibition, Chevalier proposes a relationship (and, by extension, a confrontation) between two spaces that share a single instability.
Chevalier brings to light the Jurassic Coast, a coastal zone in southern England composed of alternating layers of clay and limestone β commonly called π΅ππ’π πΏπππ β near Lyme Regis, Dorset, and the chalk cliffs at Seaton (Beer Head), Devon. In the course of their history, these fossil-rich cliffs have undergone various major episodes of erosion and are now, with rising water and increasing numbers of extreme weather events, becoming more and more unstable. In some works, Chevalier also turns to Canary Wharf in London. Canary Wharf is a city within a city, built in the late 1980s by the Canadian financier Paul Reichmann under the Thatcher government on the former site of docks of the West India Company (a colonial-era enterprise involved in the triangular trade). This nucleus of international finance is examined through its glass-and-metal architecture and the exhaustive list of tenants of the Canary Wharf Group (publicly traded since 1999), which include the head offices of major banks and investment funds sitting cheek by jowl.
At the intersection of these two unstable places, certain βexoticβ species seem also to be witnesses to a crumbling world. They appear through the dynamics of proliferation or make a comeback as ornamental plants. These plant species, with a silent presence and characteristic silhouette, are also found in πππ€πππππ/πΌππ π‘ππππππ‘π¦.
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GeneviΓ¨ve Chevalier is a visual and media artist, independent curator, and professor at Laval Universityβs School of Visual Arts. Her postdoctoral fellowship (FRQSC 2014-2016) in museum studies focused on artistsβ interventions in museum collections, and was completed as part of the research group Collections et impΓ©ratif Γ©vΓ©nementiel (CIΓ/CO). Chevalier has contributed essays to collective works such as π πΜπππ£πππ‘ππ ππ πππππππ‘πππ. πΏβπππ‘ ππ‘ ππ ππ’π πΜπ ππ’ π‘ππππ ππ πβπΜπ£πΜππππππ‘πππ (2023, PUQ), and πΏπππ’π₯ ππ‘ ππππππ’π₯ ππ πβπππ‘ π£ππ£πππ‘. πππππππππ πβπππ π‘ππ‘π’π‘πππ (2023, Presses du rΓ©el). In 2023, a monograph on her work was co-published by Dazibao, the Foreman Art Gallery, and Galerie UQO.
Chevalierβs art practice includes video and film projections, and photographic series in which she examines issues around biodiversity loss in the era of the climate crisis through natural history (FRQSC 2020-2023). Her work questions our inheritance of modernityβs concept of the living world: one that is decontextualized, simplified, and exploitable. In 2024, she will be the artist-in-residence at the Jardins de MΓ©tis as part of the project πΉππ’π₯-ππππ (FRQ).
About the location
Galerie UQO
101 rue Saint-Jean-Bosco
Gatineau J8Y 3G5