Air d’été, tout léger
OPENING: Thursday March 13, 5:30 pm
ARTIST TALK: Saturday April 5, 1 pm
ABOUT THE EXHIBITION
Softness of materials, elegance of shapes, colorful vocabulary. Steffie Bélanger tells us of Air d’été, tout léger [Very light summer air], punctuated by the sanding of wood, elastic fabrics, and vibrant stripes.
The artist’s approach is rooted in an exploration of the intersection between art and storytelling, material and perception, space and surface, questioning the imprints of a seaside history, the traces of a visual heritage by the water.
“At the beach, I imagine myself… the hot sand burning my feet, parents calling on their children when lunch is ready, and memories of past summers quietly rising with the waves”.
It is, indeed, the narrative potentials of the installation that Steffie Bélanger seeks to question in order to reveal the ironic side of our beach habits. We encounter a line of car trunks printed on paper, neatly packed for the beloved outing of families or friend groups. Summer is already in the air. Further along, beach towels and lounge chairs set the tone. A tribute to the diversity of carved bodies in life-size, with hand-sewn swimsuits. In a recreational buzz, the scent of sunscreen lingers. Then, we reach the waves, laser-etched, gently caressing the hardwood, soft silicone, intense blue, and solar yellow. Not to mention the sharp sense of titles that reinterpret the visual language of it all. The artist carefully crafts her creations, infused with humor and irony. Slightly provocative. In her own way. Always light-hearted.
Steffie’s poetic universe of the beach justifies evocative sets of real singularities. With Renfiler un maillot mouillé, the sculptor transports us into her work of surgically-cut ash and meticulous rearrangements by interlocking wood.
All the elements of the figure, deconstructed and then reassembled without nails or screws, give the work a sense of vital density. There are no cheap effects; it’s all in the transition of this composite “being,” irresistibly tied to the challenging task of (un)dressing without modesty or intimacy. A playful element is always close at hand.
And yet, beneath the seductive aestheticism, her art can be unsettling. With On ne parlera de rien, ce sera formidable, which wraps up this beach outing, the artist moves beyond formal exploration. She has crafted a complete, offbeat vision that instantly evokes a sense of strangeness. A blazing midday sun and a wax cooler, now the obsession of a flock of gulls, create a tension that prompts the holidaymaker to reflect on their relationship with the wilderness, as both a realm of pleasure and abandon.
All of Steffie Bélanger’s art demands careful consideration and a necessary back-and-forth engagement with the work. By nature, she works with precision, adding and removing elements, encouraging a polysemous interpretation through the winding path of visual
metaphor. In this way, her sculptural installations, which she makes partly kinetic, quickly capture the eye and spark our imagination, barefoot in the sand.
– Texts by Lindsay Roels
Artist’s biography
Steffie Bélanger’s practice is fundamentally centered on materials, grounded in her keen observation of human behavior and everyday objects. A graduate of Concordia University, she earned her Master’s degree in Visual and Media Arts from the Université du Québec à Montréal in 2018.
“It’s always been sculpture,” the artist reveals. From the very beginning, her work has been a careful pursuit of destabilizing forms, envisioned as a complex structure of evocative words, images, or sensations. Her unique, creative work has been featured in solo and group exhibitions, notably in 2016 and 2022 at Salle Alfred-Pellan in Laval, in 2017 at Centre VU and l’Œil de Poisson in Quebec City, in 2018 at Galerie d’art Stewart Hall in Pointe-Claire, in 2020 at Quai 5160 in Verdun, and at Centre d’exposition Lethbridge in Montreal.
In recent years, more figurative forms have emerged in the artist’s projects, such as the wood sculptures showcased in 2021 at Galerie B-312 in Montreal, for which she received a grant from the Canada Council for the Arts.
Now based in Montreal, Steffie Bélanger combines her artistic practice with teaching.
Author’s biography
Lindsay Roels holds a Master’s degree in Art History from the Université du Québec à Montréal. Under the direction of Thérèse St-Gelais, her research focused on figures of hybridity in the sculptures of Belgian artist Berlinde De Bruyckere.
Based in Montreal since 2017, she is dedicated to teaching and collaborates on editorial projects. With a particular interest in women artists and the representation of female subjects in art, her work is informed by the social history of art and gender studies.
Photo credits: Jean-Michael Seminaro
