Ascension

Amélie Brisson-Darveau’s solo exhibition Ascension temporarily transforms the gallery space into an indoor climbing gym of sorts (albeit with handpainted walls and delicate, hand-formed ceramic grips). The installation considers the popularity of artificial climbing walls in both urban Switzerland (Brisson-Darveau’s current home) and Vancouver, from playgrounds to boulders in public parks and giant indoor climbing centres (which often mimic famous climbing routes in the Alps and the Rockies). Here Brisson-Darveau, whose practice is persistently interested in tracing movements of the body in relation to its natural and built environment, engages the play of structure and texture as a crucial relay between different geographies, bodily capacities, nature and culture.

BIO

Amélie Brisson-Darveau received her MFA from Concordia University in the Fiber Art program. She completed a B.A. in Visual and Media Art at the Université du Québec à Montréal and received a second BA in Social Work from Université de Montréal. Brisson-Darveau is interested in activating the dynamics between architecture, composition of movements (from the body or materials) and time. Through her installations, performative actions and drawings, she makes these forces emerge and disappear through methods of layering, cutting, assembling, sequencing and synchronizing. Her work has been shown in various exhibitions and events in Canada, United-States, and Europe. She has received grants from FQRSC (Fonds de recherche sur la science et la culture) and the Canada Council for the Arts, and was the recipient of an Emerging Artist Award from the Kaunas Textile Biennale. She lives and works between Montreal and Zurich.