Group Exhibition — New Horizons II

The New Horizons II exhibition took place from November 9 to December 8, 2024. It featured works by Mathilde Demoli, Justine Béliveau, Romane Dumas-Kemp, Vickie Grondin, Emy G. St-Laurent et Geneviève Thibault with special participation by Rick Miller.

New Horizons II

Text by Josianne Poirier
Artistic Director, Grantham Foundation

Photos : Richard-Max Tremblay

The works presented in New Horizons II, which fall somewhere between an imagined biodiversity and intimate landscapes, explore different ways of being in the world. They offer a perspective on environmental issues that speak to the next generation in visual arts.

In Outre-tombe, by Mathilde Demoli, taxidermy and ceramic animals make their way into the Foundation building. Adopting the codes of naturalistic identification, the piece pays homage to the life and death of each individual within it. While taxidermy has long been associated with a practice of dominating the living world, here it is applied to serve an ethical thought process. Emy G. St-Laurent’s Terraformages also features a multitude of specimens. This group of soft sculptures conjures up an imaginary ecosystem suggestive of a world that is at once land and sea. The joyful, colourful installation is made from post-consumer textiles.

The provenance of materials lies at the heart of Vickie Grondin’s eelgrass, as well. On her various stays in the Îles-de-la-Madeleine, where her current research is primarily based, the artist sustainably collected eelgrass, a seagrass found in abundance on the beaches. Grondin turned it into a type of paper which, like the video that accompanies it, invites the viewer to draw near in order to develop a close connection with the work. The texture of the material that covers the adjacent bed, by Justine Béliveau, encourages the same behaviour. The folded sheets are produced out of lint, the bits of fibre generally shed by fabric after it has been dried. This residual waste gathered from hotels and hospitals hints at stories of hospitality and health care.

The project Géographies de l’intime/Ancestral Mindscapes is the product of a collaborative undertaking by Geneviève Thibault and Rick Miller; Cree filmmaker Jules Koostachin took part in previous iterations. The four photographs on display reveal the healing journey experienced by Rick Miller when he returned to the scenes of his childhood, where the history of his family and that of the extractive industry in the Gaspé region are intertwined. The relationship with landscape is similarly central to the practice of Romane Dumas-Kemp, who explores the dialogue between the built world and natural elements. This duality is an integral part of the form itself of her installation, which is made up of architectural volumes and photographs, offering a moment of contemplation.

The exhibition New Horizons II brings together works by the six finalists for the prize of the same name. Intended for students in one of the visual arts master’s programs offered by six Quebec universities—Concordia University, Université du Québec à Chicoutimi, Université du Québec à Montréal, Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières, Université du Québec en Outaouais and Université Laval—it is awarded to a student whose practice focuses on environmental concerns. For the second edition of the competition, the winner of the New Horizons prize is Mathilde Demoli, at Université Laval. She receives a $3,000 grant, thanks to the financial support of the Fonds Pierre-Mantha.

The Grantham Foundation thanks the Fonds Pierre-Mantha and the participating universities, and congratulates the artists!