2012 EDITIONA Paradise Not Altogether Lost?

Réal CALDER

The Roots of the RainbowA paradise not altogether lost is buried under the reality of everyday life. By digging a ditch to drain the orchard, some of the earthly traces of paradise appeared. Wonder lies just beneath the reality of the landscape. The colourful roots here are both extensions of the larch and the roots of a rainbow, partially revealed, circumscribing the whole earth. 

The rainbow is a road in mythology, a bridge between two worlds; here the omnipresence of paradise on earth.

Bill VAZAN

The New NormalTwo broken and overlaid blue apple trees - following the global floods.

Agnès DUMOUCHELwww.agnesdumouchelarts.com

ÉveIL
This mandala ÉVEIL asks us to take the time to surrender to our sensations in order to experience the work from several points of view. This work sets up a process of recognition of the various environmental elements to instill a sacred relationship that overlaps across nature and culture. Dumouchel invites us to walk along for the purpose of sharing and realization in the orchard and to return nature to a place of prominence: Paradise not altogether lost, this is the éveil (awakening) to contemplation and respect for our sacred treasures.

Yves LEBLETwww.artlodgepanama.com

The Cosmic Tree

Olivier GINGRASwww.oliviergingras.com

Désillusion dénaturelleConsidering the artist's voice to be vital in current environmental debates, Olivier Gingras presents Désillusion dénaturelle. A work which tends to open the debate on the role of each gesture, each word, each person, and the importance that each piece of the puzzle may have regarding the fate of the planet... of life.

Olga ZIEMSKAwww.olgaziemska.com

Hotei and the ObserversTree branches with white fingers emerging from their tips. The building of a wood fire transforms wood into a thick black texture, referring to the ancient Japanese technique of Shou Sugi Ban where cedar wood is burned to create a protective carbon layer. The smoke residue lightly greys the shiny white index fingers pointing up.

Hotei and the observers are located at ground level in a circular shape. From a distance, if you squint, you can see the moon. Hotei, a Buddhist monk who lived in 900 A.D., once said: "The finger can point to the moon's location. However, the finger is not the moon. To look at the moon, it is necessary to gaze beyond the finger."

Pierre LEBLANC

Scaffolding for Ozias LeducThe project consists of designing a coloured line which will continue high above the installation like a scaffold erected in a descending line ending with a pile of various materials, forming a spiral to the ground.
The colour covering the said line contains the testimony of the homage I wish to pay the painter Ozias Leduc. The installation as such personifies in itself the scaffolds the painter climbed throughout his life. Indeed, Ozias Leduc spent most of his time in the heights on scaffolds walking tightropes in churches all over Québec, including Saint-Hilaire, in order to paint decorations.

Sonia ROBERTSON

Tshiashilnuatsh eu meshkanum
Pathway to the Ancients Walking in the wood, my gaze fell on this tree, which rises with all its strength, rises with energy above the other trees. Like a prayer which rises towards the sky still hoping for this paradise on earth, despite everything (pollution, corruption), my work attempts to create this space where time stops; where it is possible to realize that we are connected to all things and where one can then remember where we come from and those who came before us.

Consisting of larch branches, traditionally used to make goose lures, this design evokes the ancients but could also be a lure to this Paradise not altogether lost.

Daniel-Vincent BERNARD

Vice-vers çaSuch Philistines are we that Vice-vers ça is nothing more than a conceptual consequence of our persistent triviality.

It is understood that we cannot survive without nature. However, it could very easily do without us. Nevertheless, what the mind can conceive, it is able to accomplish.

Nathalie LEVASSEURwww.nathalielevasseur.net

Aller aux pommesSince my childhood, the bucolic expression "aller aux pommes" evokes in me far more than the Sunday afternoon harvesting activity. When I heard about an apple outing, it meant bringing apples to the deer feeders. Taking care, balancing the paradoxical relationship of patience and tenderness that binds the hunter to the beast. The installation Aller aux pommes reflects this communal living space that is an earthly paradise, at once ephemeral and enduring, depending on whether it is applied to the animal or life in a larger sense; where both hunter and deer will go for the apples.
Insofar as these basic skills form the timeless frame of my entire artistic practice and, as a tribute to the relationship my father held with nature (still a bow hunter to this day) Aller aux pommes became the reading of a ritual through which he passed on to me, naturally, the values of respect and admiration which are reflected, in varying degrees, in each of my works.

In Collaboration with the University of Sherbrooke

Brigitte BLANCHET

(Espace retrouvé) Rediscovered spaceWe know that the apple tree takes water, earth and the sun's energy to create an apple. Yet the process of the apple coming into being is still somewhat mysterious. I am interested in the way one thing becomes another and the ability of materials in our world to transform.
In the orchard, I planned to reproduce apples with ingredients like the trees use. I started with the local clay that contains both water and earth. To this I added the energy of a wood fire in round pits in the ground. Making these apples was an attempt to tap into the mystery of metamorphosis. Visitors to the orchard were invited to partake by picking an apple.

Nathalie AMPLEMAN

Reversed point of viewAs a photographer, I try to capture different moments of our day. With the installation of a darkroom in the orchard, I propose a reflection on the concept of point of view. The decision of putting a darkroom in the landscape is not random. This optical instrument gives a two-dimensional view. This is a pictorial act, we are forced to fix the image from the point of view. The projected image is real, as received on a screen. From where should we look at the scenery? How do we watch it? The instrument is considered "objective". Escaping the image is fleeing the model, the subject, the pretext, pattern, in short anything that can be said to be premeditated. It is a potential realization of what a point of view can be. It is a gentle invitation into this landscape, which awaits, fragile in its melodic material. Finally, a paradise not altogether lost!

Carrefour des ArtsGroup of students aged 6 to 14 years from Ateliers Vincent van Gouache