Marie-Josée Laframboise, Points d’inflexion et de rebroussement 2 / Points of Inflection and Reflection 2, 2008, net, weights, photograph courtesy of David M.C. Miller
POINTS D'INFLEXION ET DE REBROUSSEMENT 2 (POINTS OF INFLECTION AND REFLECTION 2) | MARIE-JOSÉE LAFRAMBOISE
06.26.2008 | 09.21.2008
Montreal artist Marie-Josėe Laframboise produces work constructed from everyday materials. Paper, twine, plastic containers, string, netting, and plastic-coated wire have all contributed to her large-scale, site-specific installations. These often develop in the exhibition space itself, addressing a particular architecture and utilizing available resources rather than traditional sculptural matter. Never a limitation, these restrictions inspire work that is visually challenging and guides the viewer to a greater understanding of volumetric space, its architecture, and the body’s place within the constructed environment. Laframboise comments: Emerging out of a variety of themes and specific material qualities, these artworks enable me to outline, configure and capture a given territory, whether concrete or conceptual. My last project used a net to create an abstraction containing elements that relate to physical and mathematical concepts.
Marie-Josee Laframboise’s three-dimensional works draw viewers into an environment where they must contemplate how they will navigate a path through the installation; where is the beginning and where does it end? We wonder if the artist is playing a game with us; leading us into an uncomfortable position, but suddenly we become totally immersed in the work, pausing to contemplate it just as the artist intended. After overcoming these obstacles, we are free to wander at will, having developed a trust in the artist’s intent, and it is through that process that we arrive at a new understanding of the space the artist has created within her fabricated architecture.
In her exhibition Points d’inflexion et de rebroussement 2, at the Southern Alberta Art Gallery, Laframboise will use the surrounding topography of the city of Lethbridge as the inspiration for her installation. Incorporating her giant net; the upper gallery space will offer the viewer an interpretation of the local landscape from a sculptor’s point of view. She looks forward to the opportunity to integrate real places into a group of spatially conceived works. The artist will continue her investigation of materials by incorporating a single, long net in a light, iridescent colour. The study of regional maps will allow her to produce details that are essential to the configuration of the installation. Laframboise states:
“The use of the net, which is associated with many different forms of space, is an approach of paramount importance to me at the moment. My recent works form a synthesis of a longstanding practice that revolves around the architecture and language of space.”
Marie-Josee Laframboise has exhibited her work extensively across Quebec and Europe. She holds M.F.A degrees from Concordia University and the Glasgow School of Art.
Documentation photography courtesy of David M.C. Miller.
