A Tale of Small Moments: La prophétie des objets aléatoires
Lorna Bauer, Paulina Bereza, Greg Carideo, Justin Chance, Caroline Douville, Kelly Jazvac, Larissa Lockshin, Christopher Paul Jordan, Emma Safir, Pauline Shaw, Maria Szakats

By Anaïs Castro

From July 13 to August 31st, 2024

Lettre d’amour à une chose

Quelle curieuse chose. Embûche à mon trajet, tu es l’objet qui émerveille le marasme de mon quotidien.

Impossible de savoir si tu as été laissée à la rue par erreur, si tu as été perdue ou abandonnée. Tu gis au sol, arrachée à ta vocation, désuète, mais ravissante. Pourtant, quelqu’un t’a un jour rêvé, quelqu’un d’autre t’a choisi. Aujourd’hui je t’offre ma révérence.

Permets-moi de te ramasser. Par mes mains, te conférer le statut d’étoffe. Acceptes-tu le parti pris de mon labeur ? Ma récompense est la consécration de ton attrait, la confirmation de la richesse de ta valeur.

Laisse-moi prendre soin de toi. Xx

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Our connection to objects is deeply intuitive and emotional. In her essay "Eros and the Readymade," Helen Molesworth posits that the selection of an object as material by an artist is a profoundly intimate and personal performative act, invariably implying a certain erotic gesture. By recuperating a discarded object as material, artists elevate a detritus to the status of art, imbuing it with intrinsic artistic value. This act transforms their work into a hopeful site, positioning their labour as a redemptive process and their relationship to materials as an expression of care.

A Tale of Small Moments: La prophétie des objets aléatoires delves into the romantic use of materials, focusing on found objects and textiles. The exhibition aims to transcend the prevailing intellectualism of art to embrace the sensual process of making, pointing to an attraction and an interaction with materials that transform objects into ideas, imbuing them of an emotional resonance and an affective power.

The exhibition further offers an opportunity to recognize the intricate and emotional bond that artists forge with their materials. The exhibition highlights how found objets, textiles, and everyday items can become vessels of memory, human connection, and ecological consciousness. Through the reparative process of reclaiming objects and materials, artists challenge our perceptions of value and prompt us to (re)consider our embodied connection with the things around us—how they support our bodies and, in turn, how our bodies engage with them.