L’ART S’AFFICHE
Transparution by Montreal artist Isabelle Parson is on display on the facades of the Ubisoft studio in the Mile-End
Art Souterrain is proud to present the fifth edition of L’art s’affiche, in collaboration with Ubisoft Montreal.
Over a period of three months, Ubisoft will host a solo exhibition of the works of artist Isabelle Parson in the Mile-End, on the exterior facade of her studio at the corner of Saint-Viateur et Saint-Dominique streets with the objective of democratizing art in the public space.
Isabelle Parson
Transparution
Biography
Isabelle Parson is pursuing a master’s degree in photography at Concordia University in Montreal. Her work has recently been shown in the exhibition
“Érosion de la scène” at Hugues Charbonneau Gallery (2021) alongside David Lafrance and Miri Chekhanovich, at Art Souterrain (Créer des Ponts, 2021), Artch – art contemporain émergent (2020) and at the Foire d’art contemporain de Saint-Lambert (2020-2019). She is the recipient of several awards and distinctions, including the Mildred Lande and Margot Lande Graduate Scholarship in Photography (2022, Concordia) and the Coup de cœur de la relève award from Esse magazine (2021). In 2021, Isabelle is doing a residency on Culture Montérégie’s Instagram account “Culture vitale, culture locale”. Her works are part of private and institutional collections.
Artist statement
For the past 4 years, Isabelle Parson has been using a greenhouse as her studio, a space she chose intuitively for the uniqueness of its fluid and diaphanous light as well as for its materiality. Her practice is developed above all through the reminiscence of lived experiences, including a neardeath experience at the age of 7. Through photography and video, the artist develops a sensitive vision that emphasizes the symbiosis of the organic, the mineral and the synthetic. Inspired by her own experience and approaches that question matter and its agentivity, and conscious of the fragility of existence, she addresses the notion of transition from inert to living.
1. La serre — Fougères et pluie
Photography, 24″ x 36″, 2022
Works from a series of photographs presented at La Galerie Hugues Charbonneau from May 11 to June 18, 2022 as part of the group exhibition L’érosion de la scène, bringing together artists David Lafrance, Isabelle Parson and Miri Chekhanovich. The title of the exhibition refers to an essay by Anne Cauquelin entitled L’invention du Paysage. In it, the philosopher describes the evolution of landscape art over the centuries. Among the ideas formulated in this text, there is the one which wants the landscape to be definitively liberated and put in the forefront by a detachment of all decorative constraints.
The exhibition looks at ecosystems that were once our natural environments and have since been completely subjected to industrial and post-industrial human activity. Through photography, the artist explores abandoned greenhouses in her region and is interested in the types of states of mind that are conducive to contemplation and receptivity, including epoch. Her subjects of study are unique in that they change with time, natural light and the seasons. Through observations and intuitive studies of materials, the artist reveals a series of local, spontaneous and furtive seizures, like an April seedling that cracks the soil. The works produced underline the complexity of our relationship to the world and to ourselves. The insistence, even the stability of the artist’s approach creates here a series of observations where the comparables are rich and revealing of discoveries as intoxicating as they are disturbing. The photograph Agentivity – Calculator is the result of a project realized in 2021 in which the artist questions the notion of agentivity of matter as well as the transition from inert to living.