Vers des cycles mouvants / Towards moving cycles
KUH DEL ROSARIO
JULIE ROCH-CUERRIER
INGRID TREMBLAY

Curated by:
Joséphine Rivard &
Ariel Rondeau

(Photo credit: Alignements)

Opening Reception: Sat. June 5, 2021

Exhibition Run: June 5 – September 12, 2021

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An exhibition presented at EXPRESSION, Centre d’exposition de Saint-Hyacinthe and the Jardin Daniel A. SĂ©guin.

“What are some tactics for cultivating the experience of our selves as vibrant matter?”
(Jane Bennett, 2010)

Matter lives, transforms itself, proliferates; it follows a trajectory that is essential to its vitality. Plants, rocks, plastics, people, electricity, waste, metals—matter is part of a range of processual and interconnected relationships. It persists, is incessant and cyclical, whether it is desired or unwelcome, natural or fabricated.

The active presence of matter in our daily lives reveals its power to amass stories, memories and affects, forcing us, as human beings, to rethink our role and our attitude towards it, and to reposition ourselves within a changing world. By distancing ourselves from the binary opposition of the living and non-living, subject and object, we must now recognize how matter is engaged and how it can impact the world.

Jane Bennett’s question reflects our own ability to act, but this time, by seeking a potentially equal relationship with the expressive force of the entities that surround us. How should we behave as vibrant matter, and more importantly, how should we humbly engage with the vital energy that inhabits all non-living things?

Kuh Del Rosario salvages and integrates everyday objects and natural materials into her installation works, and positions herself as their equal in an attempt to extract new narratives from them. By combining and exploring notions of alchemy, she saves these materials from probable loss, thereby prolonging their lives.

In her sculptures, installations, and photographs, Julie Roch-Cuerrier explores matter’s transformational process through a meticulous observation of the passage of time. What emerges is the significant presence of verdigris—the result of oxidized copper—which in turn becomes the materialization of time in spectral form, whereby the artist engages in the ongoing recycling of this volatile pigment in different bodies of work.

Ingrid Tremblay’s work examines the notion of trace—ones left by time, nature, sculptural gestures, and memories. Through a laborious process and a penchant for using both traditional and contemporary techniques, she highlights the ability of material to carry both personal and shared mythologies.

In keeping with current neo-materialist theories, this exhibition calls into question our anthropocentric relationship with matter and the notion that it only serves humanity’s purpose. To recognize the active power of matter is to admit that the human enterprise is no longer the sole dominant force. Could human agency, which is linked to an inert concept of matter and has long been imposed on our ecology and resources, be re-evaluated? Could we not consider a world where living and non-living things respectfully overlap within a vital ecology?