Close your eyes, 40 x 52.
September 22 – October 10, 2011
Opening: Thursday, September 22, 6 – 9pm, Artist in attendance
Thompson Landry Gallery
The Distillery District
55 Mill Street, Building 5, #102
& The Cooperage Building #32
Toronto, Ontario, M5A 3C4
Tel: 416-364-4955
E-mail:info@thompsonlandry.com
www.thompsonlandry.com
Hours: Tues – Sat 11-6, Sun 12-5
Ancient and forgotten materials with a rich history are drastically transformed and brought to life again through the work of Amélie Desjardins. Diving into the seas of Asia, the artist retrieves pieces of exotic woods left behind from shipwrecks and collapsed bridges and reconstructs them into a stunning multimedia work of art.
On September 22nd, the Thompson Landry Gallery invites you to view L’Âme des Fossiles, over 30 incredible new works by Québecois artist Amélie Desjardins, who is quickly rising to the top of the Montreal art scene.
Born in 1980, Desjardins grew up in the eastern townships, where she acquired a strong passion for nature, the countryside, and particularly the sea. This early appreciation of the natural world lead her to pursue traveling and she soon began to explore this world in search of the wonders that inspire her.
Since the start of her artistic career, Amélie Desjardins’ work has been a reflection of her life; a constant journey of endless discovery. Her love for adventure lead her to create a visual language based on the passage of a man through treacherous waters and mysterious forests. She scuba dives deep in the seas of South East Asia, Oceania and Japan to recover pieces of mahogany, teak and other exotic woods left behind from shipwrecks and collapsed bridges and boats. Enriched with fascinating colours and textures, these planks are assembled together into linear compositions and combined with a layer of photography and mixed media. These integrated scenes depict a sense of peaceful tranquility with the underlying promise of adventure; birds in flight, a seaside paradise or secretive woods.
Amélie presents her work on exotic wood salvaged from shipwrecked and sunken boats. These boats are inlaid with secret histories and constructed of wood that has seen the passage of time, and the continuity of its matter. Its passage will encounter a new destination in Desjardins’ latest series, L’Âme des Fossiles, exhibited exclusively in Toronto at the Thompson Landry Gallery. With these works, Desjardins presents to you her sanctuary, her secret garden…