[Fall 2026]
Her Art, Her Body
par Ewa Monika Zebrowski
[EXCERPT]
Maude Arsenault’s art, her photography, is visceral. Her art is her body. Through photography, she explores her identity, her relationship with the world around her.
I saw Arsenault’s first book, Entangled (2019), two years ago. I had never seen her work before. I was moved and somewhat perplexed by what I saw. I felt a certain fragmentation, a restless spirit. The images were abstract, yet intimate and provocative. Her photographs are full of emotion. They record feelings: joy, grief, sadness, hope, uncertainty. They reflect her preoccupations: gender identity, relationships, motherhood, ageing. She dares to reveal what we often want to ignore: our wrinkles, our scars, our defects, our unmade beds, our underwear, our vulnerability. Each image is a snapshot moment in time. Her anxiety and her ambition are palpable. She wants to communicate in the moment. Immediately. We sense a certain urgency.
In 2015, Arsenault took a risk. She left a successful and demanding twenty-year career in fashion photography and advertising and returned to school. She had found it difficult to balance the demands of motherhood with the those of work and wanted to find her own voice as an artist. In 2019, she was invited to the prestigious Chico Review, an annual photobook retreat organized by the Charcoal Book Club in Montana. It was a decisive step for her: she had the opportunity to show her work to members of the photography community, including Clint Woodside,1 who immediately
became her publisher.
[…]
[ Numéro complet, en version papier et numérique, disponible ici : Ciel variable 133 – INTIMACIES ]
[ L’article complet en version numérique est disponible ici : [Her Art, Her Body]
Maude Arsenault was born in Quebec City and holds a certificate in art history (Université de Montréal) and a master’s degree in visual and media arts (UQAM). She explores the representation of female bodies and spaces through image, printed materials, collage, sculpture, and installation. Her work has been presented in exhibitions and residencies in Canada and abroad. She is the recipient of the Hariban Award photography grand prize in Japan (2020), the Yvonne L. Bombardier Scholarship (2021), and the Claudine and Stephen Bronfman Fellowship in Contemporary Art (2023). www.maudearsenault.com
Ewa Monika Zebrowski is a photographer and a poet. She has presented forty solo exhibitions and produced twenty-six artist’s books since 2001. Her work can be found in over fifty institutional and museum collections in Canada, the United States, and abroad, including MoMA, the Getty Research Institute, and the Menil Collection.