Marilyse Chaussée
We’ve featured the works of Marilyse Chaussée before, but with the work she’s been doing since our last post we thought it was time for a revisit. In the piece above, What do you think of when you create?, the artist created an installation regrouping four big tracing paper sheets, aligned in order to create a spiral like shape. As Chaussée describes the work,
“My project is about escaping reality by projecting ourselves in a minimal miniature landscape. It talks about reinventing daily living, recycling objects and how to evoke fascination out of the ordinary. It talks about scales, humans and systems. It is playful. I don’t think it’s about nature preservation, I find it relates more to how to deal with what we have, and to go on from there.”
The piece’s title also carries a larger message about how we access art. The title of the work came from a discussion Chaussée had with a colleague who asked her about the inspiration for her works. As she states,
“At first, I dismissed the question thinking that artists have a common understanding of creation process. But I realised that he had a different approach, he would pick up an idea and then bring it to life materially whereas I would play with the proprieties of the materials and think of ideas along the way. This title also alludes to the common belief that in order to appreciate or talk about art one must be a specialist. That is often not the case and, sadly, this belief prevents people from going to galleries and even talking about art. I would like my work to be an access to imaginary and, perhaps, the starting point of interesting discussions.”
This is a really poignant message to contemplate, how do we make galleries more accessible? Why do people sometimes hesitate when talking about art?
If you happen to be in Ottawa, this piece will be at Blink Gallery from September 6th to 9th, and for more of Chaussée artworks, click here.
