Reception: RMG Fridays, February 3, 7-10pm
The Portraits of Windows exhibition is broadly inspired by the varied states of mind of the captive or confined – those who look out onto the same sceneries, day after day. The paintings that make up the series reveal the environment in which each individual – that I have personally met with – lives their daily life. From prison cells to hospital rooms and convents, these spaces, which are often transitory, are the starting point for a study into how suspended time effects their occupants.
By imagining how the eyes process time, I reflected upon the distortion of reality that vision ensues; it is that very distortion which allows us to access a fertile imaginativeness. That is why I attempt to magnify the ordinary in my paintings – by creating images of uncertain subjects which hover between states of awareness, and potential escape.
My repeated encounters with a group of women incarcerated in a maximum-security facility are the starting ground for upcoming work. Their sentiments, as well as their depictions of windows, will be presented alongside my project, to foster a dialogue amongst them. The artistic experiments conducted and subsequently shown within the prison halls will be displayed in my exhibit, so that visitors may have access, and experience a connection to, these women.
The repetitive display of paintings – much like a series of windows – is intended to spur visitors into temporarily inhabiting the exhibition space and reflect on their relationship to the concept of time, when stillness imposes itself, far from the frenzy of daily life.
Artist’s Biography:
Elise Lafontaine lives and works in Montreal. She holds a BFA, major painting and drawing, from Concordia University (2015). She presented her work at the Luz Gallery (2015) and Art mûr Gallery (2014). She took part of the Vermont Studio Center residency (2012) and more recently Leipzig International Art Programme (LIA) (2015), where she exhibited her work at the Spinnerei Gallery Tour Autumn / Herbst Rundgang Germany. Internationally, she has participated in the Toronto Art Fair (2011, 2012), the New York Affortable Art Fair (2010, 2013),at the Tokyo International Art Fair (2010) and Contemporary Istanbul Art Fair (2009 2010).