ARTIST IN RESIDENCE EST-NORD-EST
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EST-NORD-EST Résidence d'artistes

335 Avenue de Gaspé O, Saint-Jean-Port-Joli, QC G0R 3G0, Kanada
01. 09.2017 – 15. 11. 2017
FC: ENE / Jean-Sébastien Veilleux photographe

“The body of work that Céline Struger developed during her two-month stint at Est-Nord-Est was the most directly inspired by the environment surrounding the artists’ residence and studios. Struger is an Austrian artist from Vienna who works in installation as a counterpoint to virtual reality. She uses both found and fabricated materials to create an alternate reality that questions concepts of value.

The prominence of the St. Lawrence River in Saint-Jean-Port-Joli was manifested in the forms of the pieces that Struger created for an installation in her studio, which were derived either from a sketch that she drew of the shore of the river and its fascinating rock formations or from the objects that she found strewn along the shore, such as plastic six-pack rings. The installation incorporated these objects, including a sizable piece of charred wood and a rusted-out piece of machinery, suggesting an equivalency among the forms. A number of the pieces were ceramics fired in the Est-Nord-Est studio kilns.

All of the ceramics were treated with an Obvara glaze, introduced to Struger by Judith Dubord, a local artist. Est-Nord-Est encourages and facilitates such interactions between local and visiting artists. Obvara firing, which creates a surface pattern that is said to ward off the evil eye, appealed to Struger because of her interest in the power of materials, both literal and symbolic. Through her treatment, quotidian objects are transformed into alien life forms that invite a re-evaluation of what can be known about them.

Michael Davidge