Vent du Nord: May 1- 31part of le Mois de l'art imprimé
ARPRIM, 372 , Ste-Catherine Ouest, #426 Montreal Gallery hours: Tues. - Sat. 9:30 - 5pm
Opening May 3, 2 pm

The artist converts the research premises of ARPRIM into a Quebec landscape, with the visitors participating as actors in a weather drama. It connects her developing interest in the theatricality of print installations, performance and a delight in the absurd.

Stage directions: Late autumn, sunshine. Close to us is a field of corn. In the distance a cold north wind has blown in and the farmland rubble is covered in snow. Through the corn we glimpse scholars bent over ARPRIM's desks, hard at work between the sunshine and the storm. A gust of wind blows over their heads. A small, private avalanche falls unseen in the back office.

Inventory:
36 items: 6 ft. stalks of corn (woodcut)
100 items: 9 ft. lengths of yellow ribbon (sunshine)
theatre gels (also sunshine)
12 x 4 ft. storm with fields and various buildings ( woodcut panorama)
snowflakes ( innumerable)
storm clouds
1 avalanche for Isabelle (small, private)
3 fans (on)
3 gusts of wind ( invisible)
seeds (cut paper)
diverse furniture items (collection of ARPRIM)
the public ( a curious, random variable)
Tamias minimus, Petromyscus maniculatus, Mus musculus ( small woodcuts)

In Vent du nord, the researchers at ARPRIM are involved in an unscripted performance as are the gallery visitors. They are either walking through the corn field or they are working in the space between the sunny corn field and the approaching storm. Like us, they operate in an unpredictable and absurd world. In all likelihood, the optimistic experiment of modern culture is ending and what awaits is something grimmer and unwelcome. All we can ask is that these scholars do their best, help each other and try to gain a little insight into the overall context in which they find themselves.

Merci Vesselina, Emmanuelle, Isabelle ( who started everything) and the artists who helped with the installation : Elizabeth, Genevieve and Wing ( who thought of putting motion lines on the fan)
merci tous le monde - I'm happy to be showing in beautiful Montreal.