Melanie Perreault

Melanie Perreault
February 13 - March 11, 2012
main gallery + ste-catherine street vitrine

Events

Vernissage:
Thursday February 16, 5-7PM
Performances:

Various times throughout the exhibit

"Jillian never wanted to make another mistake for the rest of her life. If only she could spend an unlimited amount of time reading about an unfathomable variety of subjects, she would have enough knowledge to deal with every future uncertainty.

First she sat behind a library and rescued books from the recycle bin. Jillian worried about all of the information getting lost in the dawn of the digital era. What information would be left un-scanned and lost forever? She would have to read it. She collected boxes and boxes of encyclopaedias that were being discarded as analog relics . Then she set about reading them. But even reading all day, there was just too much information to process.

She cut out all of the most fascinating bits and collaged her study with them. That way, Jillian could be reminded of them every day. With every word there was another memory, and with every memory there was an infinite possibility. But there was just so much information to ponder.

So Jillian took breaks from reading to build things out of the cardboard book boxes. The methodical cutting and gluing provided an opportunity to meditate on all of the information she consumed. She built a tropical garden. It was a cozy place to read."

This installation provides a visceral experience of information overload infused with the sense of another dimension and the fantastic. Monochromatic and dense, Vibrancy Trickling Into Tuesday Before Dawn becomes a cardboard oasis for the durational performance of the character Jillian. Her actions are those of the culturally neurotic - seeking to read more, see more, learn more, know more - her guarantee of failure has led her to this fantastical display where she begins to fade into the site.

Melanie Perreault spent most of kindergarten staring at the brilliant cherry-red classroom door. Sometimes she would run her fingertips over the glossy paint and pretend she was absorbing its colour. Perreault would carry the red with her, touch it to other surfaces, and, in her imagination, colour other objects. She still does this sometimes.

Perreault's teen years were spent imagining installations, and then her undergrad years were spent constructing installationns. She relocated to Montreal after completing a BFA in Kamloops.

When spare time is available Perreault hikes, reads, cultivates house plants, and reorganizes the drawer containing her bobby pins.

"I wonder about the human mind’s ability to organize and file everything. Can information be misfiled in our brains- mixed up or lost completely? I often dream about some form of utopian filing system, somewhere to keep everything I ever enjoyed experiencing: a pungent quayside odour; vibrant lime images of Japanese moss; the texture of polished wood on bare feet...

On occasion I stumble across a distinctly luscious aroma and I want to place it carefully in my pocket for safe keeping, but instead, the fragrance evaporates into blank oblivion. My installations represents an attempt to save and savour both the tangible and intangible."
-Melanie Perreault.

If you are a Concordia undergraduate fine arts student and would like to contribute a review please email SASA at sasa.art.studies@gmail.com