IL N’Y A PAS DE SENS ULTIME À l'INTÉRIEUR DE MOI : AN APPEARANCE OF PARTICIPATION (2010-2021) [There is no ultimate signification inside me: An appearance of participation (2010-2013)]
in situ multimedia installation presented in the context of
Dessiller: s'ouvrir au hors-champs / Awakening: seeing beyond the frame
February 5 — May 15, 2022
Musée d'art de Joliette, QC.
Curated by : Anne-Marie St-Jean Aubre
Lorna Bauer, Marie-Claire Blais, Nadège Grebmeier Forget, Alicia Henry, Tau Lewis, Michaëlle Sergile, and Eve Tagny
Works Exhibited (main floor)
Works Exhibited (entrance + second floor) :
Nadège Grebmeier Forget shatters accepted ideals of beauty and female behaviour in durational performances where an abundance of sugary foods, artificiality, and archetypes are emulated and consumed, resulting in excessive displays that reject the idea that women are simply objects to be visually devoured. Her performance practice is reproduced for the first time here as an installation in which the initial exuberance is transposed through the process of accumulation and layering. A multitude of images and videos from the artist’s public and private performances from between 2010 and 2013, 2014 and 2017, and 2018 to 2021 are brought together in three large-scale murals in the Museum’s common areas. Grebmeier Forget has adapted her approach—based on gleaning photo and video images that she confronts with the reality of live action—to the production of billboard-sized panels as a way to underline the persistent gap between perfection and reality, between exteriority and interiority.
Makeup (and its parade), as it is applied to the body and face in several of the images selected here, is one of the recurring techniques Grebmeier Forget uses to express the tension between the self and one’s appearance. Technology and social media are also used as intermediary tools that create distance between herself and others. While some of these images resemble traditional frontal portraits, others only show pixelated surfaces: like the many illusory fantasies shattered by the artist. Partial nudity, swaying hips, excess, spillage, sequins, eyeshadow, lipstick, ribbons, stockings, and lace are all part of what is recorded via her computer screen, which acts as both an instrument for communication and recording, and a mirror—that is, a self-confirmation tool. In the era of social media, has exhibitionism become an essential element of self-actualization? Each of these image associations gives the impression that we are witnessing a kind of carnage, a destruction of interiorized norms that operate under the surface—hence the conflict we see here.
Images : Paul Litherland and Maxime Brouillet
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Il n’y a pas de sens ultime à l’intérieur de moi : An appearance of participation (2010-2013)
2021
Multichannel video installation (colour, sound), prints on adhesive vinyl, monitor, tablets
246.4 x 382 cm
Video recordings:
- Nature’s Path (Séquence 41 : S’enregistrer, pour et avec Ève), October 29, 2013, 31 min 8 s
- Creamy Deluxe, February 18, 2013, 19 min 25 s
- Creuse (Séquence 29 : Observation à distance), February 23, 2013,
15 min 3 s
- Juste Looking (Séquence 37 : Observations à distance), May 6, 2013,
19 min 25 s
Property of the artist
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Il n’y a pas de sens ultime à l’intérieur de moi : An appearance of participation (2018-2021)
2021
HD video installation (colour, sound), prints on adhesive vinyl, monitor
275.6 x 703.7 cm
Video recordings:
- Disclosed Navigations ou Le carnet, la glace et l’outil (2015-01-25 –
2022-01-27), January 27, 2022, 2 h 20 min 37 s
Property of the artist
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Il n’y a pas de sens ultime à l’intérieur de moi : An appearance of participation (2014-2017)
2021
Multichannel video installation (colour, sound), prints on adhesive vinyl, monitor, tablets
248.3 x 420.4 cm
Video recordings:
- Rendering On View (Recalling Huston 2016, Montreal Fragments),
May 27, 2017, 25 min 45 s
- Oxymorons (Empreinte 9/10), April 2, 2015, 38 min 42 s
- Wallflower Or Something Such As A Tapestry That Is Hung And You,
January 29, 2017, 2 h 38 min 23 s
- Reflecting On Track No.9 (Screen record), August 19, 2016,
2 h 21 min 2 s (five-hour performance)
- Re-Reflecting On…(Screen record), December 17, 2016,
2 h 45 min 38 s (five-hour performance)
- Hier est aujourd’hui. (Simulacre), February 11 to March 13, 2016,
11 h 59 min 58 s (performance of approximately 120 hours)
Property of the artist
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Inscriptions enrubannées, pour passages [Beribboned inscriptions, for passages]
2022
Performative intervention, adhesive vinyl, makeup
Variable dimensions
Property of the artist