KEEP IN TOUCH

Gallery I

Keep in Touch is the second installment of Entretiens which first began in 2017. In these projects, Cindy Dumais explores the transition from writing to the materiality of visual art through drafts of literary works donated by their authors. Here, the origin of the play The Dragonfly of Chicoutimi (1995) is referenced in two notebook pages dating from 1992, generously shared by Larry Tremblay. These serve as the starting point for a sculptural and videographic body of work where Dumais borrows from the performative potential of dramatic text to explore the theme of identity.

Dumais’ practice has developed around intertextuality and quotation, highlighting the mechanisms by which reading informs thought. In Keep in Touch, the connection with Tremblay’s text is less cerebral in nature. Instead, it is incorporated into a material and performative practice, engaging the body within a theatrical scenography punctuated by repetitive processes and mise-en-abyme. Indeed, the exhibition recreates the world of Kit (acronym for Keep in Touch) who is a character played by actress Josée Rivard in a video work filmed during a previous presentation, where she manipulates sculptural objects that are simultaneously on display.

The performance was based on Tremblay’s text¹, from which Dumais wrote a screenplay, while the duo ‘Burn the Bitch’ produced a musical composition. The collaboration with the musicians, who were to have taken part in the film, ended before shooting. This led the artist to hire an actress and extras who became involved in the music recording process.

This substitution of people, however, enhances the doubling effect of the performance. The extras’ costumes function as uniforms, enabling anonymity and interchangeability. There are also replicas of Kit’s heads, which are based on Rivard’s 3D models. Some of these heads are equipped with cameras that Kit uses to film herself, while others repeat lines in the form of declaimed or sung mantras.

The artist’s choices, along with those that the work appears to have prompted due to the circumstances of its production, emphasize the self-referential and anxiety-inducing nature of the mirroring of text, film, and installation.

Various elements of dramaturgical language are transposed into the realm of visual arts, notably the dramatization of a crescendo narrative and the evocative power of forms and materials. Specific actions, such as the abrupt shearing of tear-like streaks of pearls from the performer’s face or the suspension of an anthropomorphic sculpture resembling the legs of dragonflies, indeed possess a certain sinister and spectacular quality.

The pathos these actions evoke connects them to a wild aspect of Dumais’ work, where the representation of the body, especially hair or teeth, elicits a dual response of attraction and repulsion. In this context, the teeth reference the dragonfly order, known as ‘odonates’. The term ‘odonates’ comes from ‘odon,’ which means ‘tooth,’ and ‘ate,’ which means ‘equipped with’ or ‘having.’ Kit’s dress with teeth-like elements alludes to the fangs of these insect-hunting creatures. However, the way it is presented as a costume also gives the impression of an object that is intentionally separated from reality through scenographic techniques.

Throughout the exhibition, the themes of metamorphosis and transformation are interwoven through the motif of the dragonfly. Much like in Tremblay’s text, the significance of this motif is not explicitly offered. However, it serves to disrupt the obsessive circularity within the Keep in Touch universe, offering a sense of openness and resolution. It also contributes to bringing The Dragonfly of Chicoutimi’s narrative arc to its culmination.

1. In Keep in Touch, an excerpt from The Dragonfly of Chicoutimi is performed, focusing on Gaston Talbot, a character who has been rendered mute due to trauma and suddenly awakens to find himself speaking only English.

Text by Marie-Pier Bocquet

Authors Bio 

Marie-Pier Bocquet holds a master’s degree in art history from Université du Québec à Montréal and a bachelor’s degree in visual arts from Université Laval. Her research is rooted in an interest in conceptual art and the utilization of language and text in artistic practices spanning from the 1970s to the present day. She serves as the General and Artistic Director of Arprim, a center specializing in experimental printed art, and she is a member of the board at Éditions HB, a publisher focused on contemporary drawing.

Artists Bio 

Since 2017, Cindy Dumais has been engaged in the development of ENTRETIENS, a large-scale project crafted from a collection of initial drafts by Quebecois authors. Through her work in the visual arts, she delves into the diverse material forms that these pages can assume within both a visual and narrative context. Based in Chicoutimi, Cindy Dumais has presented numerous solo and group exhibitions in Canada and internationally. Her work has been acquired by institutions such as the Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal, the Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec, and the Collection Loto-Québec. In 2021, she received the Prix du créateur de l’année au Saguenay Lac-Saint-Jean from the CALQ. Cindy has actively held the dual roles of author and publisher since 2005 with LaClignotante, and she is also a co-founder of AMV/Art-Mobilité-Visibilité.

Acknowledgements

Thank you to :

Larry Tremblay

Le Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec

The Canada Council for the Arts

Le centre de production en arts actuel TouTTouT

Video credit: Noémie da Silva

Photo credit: Jean-Michael Seminaro