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Indepth Arts News:
"Snowflake"
2002-06-07 until 2002-06-30
Forest City Gallery
London, ON,
CA Canada
The installation SnowFlake is comprised of a collection of several thousand hand-cut paper snowflakes made from a variety of colourful commercial wrapping and origami papers. These "one-of-a-kind" snowflakes are pinned to the wall, filling the space and converging to spell out the word "eternity" on one wall. This work is based on Hans Christian Andersen's tale, "The Snow Queen," and highlights our society's unhealthy obsession with finding happiness and the darkness that lurks behind every fairy tale.
"My work is often "pretty" and highlights all of the hidden nuances of the world of pleasure, decoration, the frivolous and stereotyped feminine icons such as queens, mermaids, nurses and lovable furry animals." The installation SnowFlake is comprised of a collection of several thousand hand-cut paper snowflakes. The snowflakes have been made from a variety of colourful commercial wrapping papers as well as origami papers. These thousands one-of-a-kind snowflakes are pinned to the wall, filling the entire gallery space and converging to spell out the word "eternity" on one wall. This work is based on Hans Christian Andersen's tale, "The Snow Queen," wherein an evil Queen casts a spell on a young boy and keeps him captive in her ice castle until he is released by his sweetheart through the power of a magical word. SnowFlake highlights our society's unhealthy obsession with finding happiness and the darkness that lurks behind every fairy tale. On July 7th, Lamontagne will present a performance entitled Snow Flake Queen. The Snow Flake Queen is based on an amalgamation of contemporary and childhood clichés. She is inspired by various aesthetics including those of the drag queen, fairy tales, consumerism and new age "flaky" culture, as well as display cultures such as parades, carnivals, and theme parks. During the performance, dressed in a costume fit for a "queen", Lamontagne will offer to make snowflakes out of whatever paper material the public brings (within possible limits). She will also have on hand a selection of various wrapping papers and classic fairy tale book illustrations for those unprepared visitors. The snowflakes will then be offered to the viewers as a souvenir of their "joyful" visit. Valérie Lamontagne is a Montréal artist, freelance art critic and curator. Her work and performances have been presented across Canada, the United States and Europe. She regularly writes about - as well as curates exhibitions focused on - new media and performance art. She is a co-founder of MobileGaze.com a net art site featuring art and interviews with digital media producers.
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