Christiane Chabot

Christiane Chabot
Montreal, Quebec, Canada

STATEMENT

About the series “Lovely Day” (mixed media, 2015-2023), Christiane Chabot writes: These works come from my studio, constituting a cabinet of curiosities through the very fact of their assembly. Some of the images refer to my own production through fragments of original drawings or photographs of works, such as the statuettes that have been the subject of recent research. The visual composition is constructed using techniques including photo collage, original drawings and with materials such as rare papers and gold leaf, as well as parts painted directly on the support.

BIO

Christiane Chabot was born in Jonquière, Quebec, Canada and holds dual Canadian and French citizenship. Since 1976, she has been living and working in Montreal and Paris. After studying visual arts at the CÉGEP de Jonquière (1969-1971) and at the Université Laval (1972-1975), Chabot completed her artistic training at the Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris (1976-1977 and 1981-1982). Over an unbroken span of some 35 years, several perspectives have marked her artwork:

• Hyperrealism;
• Research into the history of art, with a focus on the studio, the craft, the making and technique and, on another level, the relationship between modernity and postmodernity, as well as the avant-garde and trans-avant-garde;
• Research into the metamorphoses of representation, with a focus on hybridization of the relationship between abstraction and figuration;
• Work on American mythologies around Los Angeles, the urban landscapes of Los Angeles, and autobiographical research into mental images of “Americanness”;
• Research on the theme of nature. In the early years, her work mixed drawing, painting, engraving and photography. This interdisciplinary approach has gradually taken hold over the last several years, including sculpture, installation, video and information technology.
• The “Cabinet of Curiosities” series (2009-present). Several series including the statuettes “au bonheur des dames”, the statuette series “Santos”, “aurora borealis” shells. Artefacts made of different materials assembled in a new order: antique porcelain porcelain statuettes, nautilus, large Chinese clam, white coral various feathers, freshwater pearls, silver wire, glass beads, semi-precious stones and mother-of-pearl. Appearing during the Renaissance in Europe, the cabinet of curiosities is the ancestor of the museum. Here I propose a reinterpretation of objects as a starting point for creativity, a symbol of a truly contemporary vision.

Recent work includes the “Reflections” series (Photographs/Windows/Paris, 2009-present). The theme of this series is the presence of the city through through its windows, the play of chance and light. A continual theme is the presence of nature in various forms. This natural photomontage is the result of serendipity and a quest, the fruit of hours of walking in the city to track down new subjects and the right lighting. This work has been presented in more than twenty solo exhibitions and some thirty group shows, numerous commissions and is included in numerous institutional and private collections in Belgium, Canada, France, the United Kingdom, Italy and the United States.

ARTIST CONTACT

[click to email]
www.christianechabot.com

IMAGES