La femme dans la lune @ The Rooms, St. John’s Newfoundland

 

Catherine Bolduc

La femme dans la Lune / Her Head in the Clouds

 

In Catherine Bolduc’s artworks, fact and fantasy intermingle to evoke alternate, new realities. She combines fiction, autobiography, and historical reference to challenge ideas of ‘truth’.

As part of her research for this exhibition, Bolduc spent six weeks as an artist-in-residence at Gros Morne National Park on Newfoundland’s west coast. She studied, filmed and intervened in the unique landscape there. Reading Christopher Columbus’ travel journal (in “La decouverte de l’amerique”, The Discovery of America), she became interested in blending the roles of explorer and artist.

The resulting artworks re-imagine the arrival of an explorer to a strange new place. Escalating the sense of disorientation and the fantastical, Bolduc has fictionalized the arrival as being like a lunar landing. Images of craters, black holes, massive rocks and ethereal fog combine to create a narrative that further distances this landscape from any known reality. Anchoring the whole are two self-portraits of the artist, first as a child, then as the figure of the explorer.

Catherine Bolduc has exhibited her work including drawings, installation, and sculpture, all over the world. She has participated in artist residencies in Germany, Japan and Ireland. In 2013, she was awarded the Powerhouse Prize by La Centrale Galerie in Montreal, Quebec.

 

Vicky Chainey Gagnon

Director/Chief Curator

The Rooms Provincial Art Gallery Division