Mélissa Pilon, Foules — Claudia Polledri, What Is a Crowd? A New Approach to the Photojournalistic Image

Ciel variable 114 - MASSES | MONUMENTS | Portfolios
Authors: Claudia Polledri | Artists: Mélissa Pilon

[Winter 2020] By Claudia Polledri [Excerpt] What is a crowd, and how can a photograph teach us about this protagonist of twentieth-century history? In her photobook Foules, Mélissa Pilon underlines the visual complexity of crowds as living organisms, casting an original gaze upon them. In this work, defined as photojournalism, Pilon aims to offer a […]

Gisele Amantea, Aleppo, Syria, December 17, 2016 — An interview by Jacques Doyon

Ciel variable 114 - MASSES | MONUMENTS | Portfolios
Authors: Gisele Amantea, Jacques Doyon | Artists: Gisele Amantea

[Winter 2020] An interview by Jacques Doyon [Excerpt] Jacques Doyon: What is the origin of the work Aleppo, Syria December 17, 2016? How did the idea emerge? Why Syria? And what prompted you to work from an existing image of a disaster? Gisele Amantea: I was invited by curator Emily Falvey to participate in the […]

Alain Paiement, Masses / Particules — Alain Paiement, Crowds

Ciel variable 114 - MASSES | MONUMENTS | Portfolios
Authors: Alain Paiement | Artists: Alain Paiement

[Winter 2020] [Excerpt] Demonstrations. From Occupy Wall Street to Extinction Rebellion actions, popular resistance demonstrations have become an integral part of international news over the last decade. We are almost accustomed to seeing, over and over, spectacular images of uprisings against dictators, altercations among citizens, identity-related confrontations, movements of crowds in war and in desperate […]

Dominique Blain, Déplacements — Louise Déry, A Painful Beauty

Ciel variable 114 - MASSES | MONUMENTS | Portfolios
Authors: Louise Déry | Artists: Dominique Blain

[Winter 2020] By Louise Déry [Excerpt] As Dominique Blain’s exhibition Déplacements was being presented in Paris,¹ Venice was suffering a flood so terrible that we were once again anguished about the possibility of seeing this incomparable treasure of world heritage disappear. Not so long ago, it was Notre-Dame de Paris that was severely damaged, this […]

Masses | Monuments

Ciel variable 114 - MASSES | MONUMENTS | Portfolios

[Winter 2020] In this issue’s thematic section, we look at collective action in society. Against a background of social conflict and war, the artists evoke the impact of collective actions on the common good by re-examining and recontextualizing images plucked from the mass of media images that form our relationship with the world. DOMINIQUE BLAIN […]

Erasmus Schröter, Contest — Andreas Höll, A Crisis of Masculinity? The Gradual Liquefaction of Identities

Ciel variable 113 - TRANS-IDENTITIES | Portfolios
Artists: Erasmus Schröter

[Fall 2019] By Andreas Höll [Excerpt] Our image of the world has always been very fragile, and it has severely jolted on several occasions. Sigmund Freud, for example, cited the three insults to humanity that overturned our view of the world: Copernicus expected us to believe that we weren’t at the centre of the universe; […]

JJ Levine, Family — Charles Guilbert, Beyond Borders

Ciel variable 113 - TRANS-IDENTITIES | Portfolios
Authors: Charles Guilbert | Artists: JJ Levine

[Fall 2019] By Charles Guilbert [Excerpt] What strikes the eye in JJ Levine’s work is a unique way of challenging gender norms. But when we look more closely, we discover that Levine wants to erase many borders – in both photography practice and in addressing subjects such as family, time, and space. Levine’s work is […]

Kent Monkman, Miss Chief Eagle Testickle — Dayna McLeod, Disrupting Colonial Comforts and Settler Sensibilities

Ciel variable 113 - TRANS-IDENTITIES | Portfolios
Authors: Dayna McLeod | Artists: Kent Monkman

[Fall 2019] By Dayna McLeod [Excerpt] Miss Chief Eagle Testickle is the muse and alter ego of Kent Monkman, a Cree artist who confronts the violent and systemic consequences of colonialism on Indigenous peoples in North America, with attention to Canada and Quebec. He often uses Miss Chief to playfully subvert dominant discourses of this […]

Trans-identities

Ciel variable 113 - TRANS-IDENTITIES | Portfolios
Artists: Erasmus Schröter, JJ Levine, Kent Monkman

[Fall 2019] The artists brought together in this issue’s thematic section explore different issues related to the boundaries of sexual identity and their transgression. Personas, transvestism, and role mutations are core to these artists’ approaches, as they address various issues fundamental to establishing a society based on inclusion rather than on narrow concepts of identities […]

Collection Lazare : États d’âmes, esprit des lieux — Colette Tougas, Portraits of Families with Nature (Still Life or Other)

Ciel variable 112 - COLLECTIONS REVISITED | Portfolios
Authors: Colette Tougas | Artists: Nicolas Baier

[Summer 2019] By Colette Tougas [Excerpt] One purpose of the exhibition devoted to the Lazare collection at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts was to highlight thirtythree photographs that have been donated to the institution by Montreal collector Jack Lazare. To these donated photographs were added many others on loan from Lazare, adding up to […]

Bertrand Carrière, Tout ceci est impossible — Sylvain Campeau, Time is Impossible

Ciel variable 112 - COLLECTIONS REVISITED | Portfolios
Authors: Sylvain Campeau | Artists: Bertrand Carrière

[Summer 2019] By Sylvain Campeau [Excerpt] Bertrand Carrière has had a long relationship with the film world. Before establishing himself as an artist, he took many pictures as a soundstage photographer. But such images must not be seen solely as the result of a professional practice that imposed frameworks and constraints on the creation of […]

Serge Clément, Archipel — Alexis Desgagnés, Geography of an Archipelago

Ciel variable 112 - COLLECTIONS REVISITED | Portfolios
Authors: Alexis Desgagnés | Artists: Serge Clément

[Summer 2019] By Alexis Desgagnés [Excerpt] In 2014 in Quebec City, photographer Serge Clément and I presented the exhibition Constellations, composed of a corpus of photobooks drawn from Clément’s impressive collection. Our intention was to examine his privileged relationship with photobooks, and thus to encourage reflection on this type of work and contribute to its […]

Collections Revisited

Ciel variable 112 - COLLECTIONS REVISITED | Portfolios

[Summer 2019] Three recent exhibitions offer a rare look at the act of collecting. In Archipel, Serge Clément presents a collection of all the photobooks that he has made – books that can be seen as sequencings of collections of his own images. Bertrand Carrière immerses himself in the collection of the Cinémathèque québécoise, focusing […]

Bert Danckaert, True Nature — James D. Campbell, Strange Oases of the Seen: Images of the Built World

Ciel variable 111 - THE SPACE OF COLOUR | Portfolios
Authors: James D. Campbell | Artists: Bert Danckaert

[Hiver 2019] Par James D. Campbell [Extrait] The photographs of Belgian artist Bert Danckaert have been likened to abstract paintings, but the family resemblance resides more in the facture than in the finished work of art. Given his uncanny eye for the compositional “Eureka!” behind the lens, it’s as though he is using masking tape […]

Jessica Eaton, Iterations (I) — Stephen Horne, System or Poem?

Ciel variable 111 - THE SPACE OF COLOUR | Portfolios
Authors: Stephen Horne | Artists: Jessica Eaton

[Winter 2019] By Stephen Horne [Excerpt] A number of Montreal artists are proposing ambitious responses to the dissolution of traditional artistic genres in what is clearly a “post-medium world.” Jessica Eaton is one of these, as evidenced by her recent exhibition titled Iterations (I) at Galerie Ertaskiran. In this exhibition, we face a long wall […]

Yann Pocreau, Les surfaces de lumière — Bénédicte Ramade, The Life of Colours

Ciel variable 111 - THE SPACE OF COLOUR | Portfolios
Authors: Bénédicte Ramade | Artists: Yann Pocreau

[Winter 2019] By Bénédicte Ramade [Excerpt] In one of his most recent series, Réponses à la peinture, Yann Pocreau establishes an interplay of brightly coloured superimpositions, transparencies, and opacities. Hot pink, mauve, navy blue, grey, burgundy, and black clash to offer the fourth “solution” in the series (Réponse à la peinture 04, 2017–18), like a […]

The Space of Couleur

Ciel variable 111 - THE SPACE OF COLOUR | Portfolios

[Winter 2019] From the manipulation of light (through filtering, combination, or diffraction) to work on the supporting medium (film, photographic paper, walls) to searching out pictorial compositions on city streets, a space of exploration opens up for photography around the various manifestations of colour. The result is images that challenge our perceptions. Often, the referent […]

Émilie Serri, The Space Between the Seconds – Émilie Serri, Searching for a Lost Country

Ciel variable 110 - MIGRATION | Portfolios
Authors: Émilie Serri | Artists: Émilie Serri

[Fall 2018] By Émilie Serri [Excerpt] In March 2017, I crossed the country by train. On board The Canadian, I travelled a total distance of 8,932 kilometres on a return trip as a way to get moving on writing my master’s thesis. For eight days and six nights, going from east to west, and then […]

Richard Mosse, The Castle – Sylvain Campeau, Human Traces

Ciel variable 110 - MIGRATION | Portfolios
Authors: Sylvain Campeau | Artists: Richard Mosse

[Fall 2018] By Sylvain Campeau [Excerpt] Presented in this year’s edition of the annual Scotiabank Contact Photography Festival in Toronto, this exhibition was probably the festival’s centrepiece.1 It is a collection of works that seem to emanate from two series produced by Irish photographer Richard Mosse: The Castle, from which no doubt the most important […]

Michel Huneault, Roxham – Sophie Bertrand, An Intersubjective Artwork for Rethinking the Phenomenon of Migrations

Ciel variable 110 - MIGRATION | Portfolios
Authors: Sophie Bertrand | Artists: Michel Huneault

[Fall 2018] By Sophie Bertrand [Excerpt] Thanks to their inherent power, images may function to inform or to reinforce prejudices. For a number of years, photographer Michel Huneault has been concerned with deconstructing pre­ conceived ideas about migratory issues. Each of his new series builds on the previous one, making it easier to understand both […]

Migration

Ciel variable 110 - MIGRATION | Portfolios

[Winter 2018] More than thresholds, borders have become a kind of non-place – extra-national zones – where migrants’ identities and statuses are examined and their statuses held in suspension for periods that are increasingly long and undetermined. In this issue, we examine certain aspects of the crossing of borders with works that explore how migrants […]

Carol Sawyer, The Natalie Brettschneider Archive – Ariane Noël de Tilly, Between Fiction and Reality: How to Shed Light
on Artists Who Have Been Left in the Shadows

Ciel variable 109 - REVISIT | Portfolios
Authors: Ariane Noël de Tilly | Artists: Carol Sawyer

[Spring-Summer 2018] By Ariane Noël de Tilly [Excerpt] For twenty years, Vancouver artist Carol Sawyer has constructed a speculative history around her character Natalie Brettschneider, through whom she has introduced the art practices of a number of previously overlooked artists who developed within alternative circles. Sawyer’s initiative, unique and imbued with humour, was born in […]

Charles Gagnon | Emmanuelle Léonard, Le huitième jour – Pierre Dessureault, Expo 67: The Christian Pavilion and Le huitième jour

Ciel variable 109 - REVISIT | Portfolios
Authors: Pierre Dessureault | Artists: Charles Gagnon, Emmanuelle Léonard

[Spring-Summer 2018] By Pierre Dessureault [Excerpt] At Expo 67, a huge celebration of human progress and great festival of the image in all of its technological and expressive possibilities, the Christian Pavilion designed by Charles Gagnon offered a counterpoint to the event’s sea of triumphant optimism. This small pavilion, conceived by its designer as a […]

Blake Fitzpatrick and Vid Ingelevics, Freedom Rocks: The Everyday Life of the Berlin Wall – Jill Glessing, The Mobile Ruin and The Labour of Commemoration

Ciel variable 109 - REVISIT | Portfolios
Authors: Jill Glessing | Artists: Blake Fitzpatrick, Vid Ingelevics

[Spring-Summer 2018] By Jill Glessing [Excerpt] Movement is elemental to existence. Since we made our slow crawl from sea to land we’ve been “on the road” seeking better environments. But another force – territorialism – counters that drive and stems our free flow with walls, great and small. Modernity brought increasing privatization of space through […]