Clara Cousineau
Clara Cousineau is a Quebec-based multidisciplinary artist and a recent graduate from Concordia University with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in sculpture. In 2018 Cousineau was awarded the BMO 1st Art, National Prize. Her work has been presented at the Justina M. Barnicke Gallery (Toronto), the Art Mûr Gallery and the FOFA Gallery (Montreal), as well as in several group exhibitions.
S’évader (To Escape) is a series of small sets Cousineau built using a motley of everyday objects, some in fragments, some found, that represent a number of sunsets. Through these, the feelings of awe that the sight of such majestic moments generates in all of us are transposed to a more domestic plane. The contemplative experience is thus decontextualized. What emerges from this decadence of the sublime is a rather kitsch aesthetic. The photographs of these sets, printed as postcards, emphasize their fetishization, activating an unresolved tension between our fascination for the fabricated and the degradation of the natural environment they evoke.
La série S’évader présente de petites mise en scène composées d’un amalgame d’éléments hétéroclites, fragments ou objets trouvés, qui construisent la représentation d’une suite de couchers de soleil. Le sentiment largement partagé de la beauté grandiose que suscite cette image est paradoxalement ramené à l’échelle de l’univers domestique. L’expérience contemplative est décontextualisée. Une esthétique kitsch découle de cette décadence du sublime. Les clichés des petites scénographes, présentées sous forme de cartes postales, accentuent la fétichisation. S’active alors une tension irrésolue entre la fascination humaine pour l’artificiel et l’évocation d’une dégradation de l’environnement naturel.
Recent Feature Exhibition: S'évader (To Escape)
Scotiabank CONTACT Photography Festival Featured Exhibition
General Hardware Contemporary, May - June, 2019
Clara Couzino, Postcard Sunset, Edition of 5, 2018