Tout est si limpide, immaculé

-Gallery II-

 

Barbara Claus

Tout est si limpide, immaculé

Barbara Claus in conversation with Shauna Indira Beharry and Sébastien Sauvé.

Barbara Claus is concerned about the ecological impact of each of her actions. Now, she wonders how to continue her quest for meaning and beauty despite her anxiety.

The installation Tout est si limpide, immaculé raises the issue of water pollution and the presence of emerging contaminants in the St. Lawrence River, resulting from human activities [hospitals, intensive farming, textile industries, agribusiness, oil, everyday life]. 

If we continue living our lives blindly, relying on the apparent limpidity of things, all our ecosystems will be contaminated, everyone’s body will be contaminated. The installation echoes the contamination of the river’s water as well as access to clean drinking water for all, a sensitive subject here and elsewhere with ongoing conflicts. It evokes the sanitizing of art and our environments and alludes to the scripted object for an art market.

Poet Shauna Indira Beharry, has been invited to reflect on the issue of river pollution and to respond in a writing and with sound. Sébastien Sauvé expert in the field of emerging contaminants, in which the negative effects on our health and the environment no longer need to be proved, has been advising Barbara in her creative process. 

Tout est si limpide, immaculé will transform unpredictably throughout the duration of the exhibition. Barbara invites the public to take a letter or two away… 

 

Artist’s biography

Barbara is an artist, today she breathes, one day her breathing will stop.

 

Author’s biography

Professor’s biography 

Sébastien Sauvé, professor of environmental chemistry at the University of Montréal, specialist of these questions and Vice-Dean – Research and Creation of the Faculty of Arts and Science, has been involved for many years in collaborative projects at the national and global level. He and his team also have set up the campaign to Adopt a Lake.

 

 

 

 

The River

1.

The river is dirty.

i am handed the diagnosis–terminal–partial.  

i’ve been here before.  Enough times to know you breathe first. Listen as the physician talks.  

Translate later. 

               

Forever Chemicals/Everywhere Chemicals/Invisible Chemicals/Trace Chemicals/Unpronounceable 

Chemicals/ Synthetic Chemicals/Symbolic Chemicals/Historical Chemicals/Emerging Chemicals/Unnamed Chemicals (TBA)

Pharmaceuticals/Pesticides/Roundup/Make up/Shampoo/Sewage/Oil Spills/Hair Dye/Invasive 

Species/Favorite Dress re. Tango/Tango shoes/Plastic Hair Clip/Nail Polish/I.V. bag/Ink on Underwear Tags/Tamoxifen-Carboplatin-Aromatase (No Washing During Treatments)/Expensive Red 

Lipstick/Nonstick Frying Pan/Stainproof-Second Hand-Ethically Sourced-Sofa/Computer/Any Goods 

Delivered via Boats, Trucks, Planes, Humans etc.

2.

After the whale died and was fished out, murals were painted. Stories plied online.  Our one recalcitrant islander story of whales in a time of Covid was quickly used up; misunderstood. 

Or so the more cynical reminded.

But others from the river–

breathing

breathing

the whale’s dance life now gone–

brought Her to us–

wonderment breaking rules of extinction. For the moment.  

Gratitude and Grief. We knew.

Something is crossing the Ocean to River.  

Placenta to Infant. Breast to Milk. Endangering

Species. And Whales of course.  All Waters.  

They wash through me. 

They lift me over their heads.

They reach for the water further

that cannot be counted and tastes of salt. 

A life line holding.

 

The grieving heart chooses to open, not close.

For which there is no translation.

 

Press review