Nattages
City Gallery | March 18-April 29, 2022
Artist Statement
Nattage is an exhibition bringing together digital works printed on linen as well as textile works juxtaposing crochet with manipulated fabrics and fibres. These prints combine blocks of color with figurative images either photographic or drawn on wide linen veils. The hands and arms of the artist are represented, work tools, capable of taking, giving, manipulating, and performing actions with finesse and precision. These are braided to elements of found photographs depicting the artist’s paternal line.
The thread or line occupies an important place in the work, tracing a perpetual narrative between memory, its effect on the physical body and the transgressions of the brain in relation to memory. Arsenault is especially interested in the space that exists between the true and the false, as well as in the moment when the imaginary redefines itself as veritas inside the human brain. The works in wool and fabrics are made with care thus posing a reflection on the craftsmanship which is transmitted by his maternal line. The process being most important, in the manner of a rite, she recites aloud a family history for each crocheted chain, inserting in the object the stories of the past. The result is an object-memory,
a “memento” with no intrinsic value.
Most of the works were produced during a dream residency at Centre Sagamie in Alma, Quebec in February 2019. The artist would like to thank Centre Sagamie for its financial and technical support during this most significant period of creation.
Biography
Trained in printmaking and photography with a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the Université de Moncton (2013), Alisa has participated in several group exhibitions, solo shows, and creative residencies in New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Ontario, and Québec.
Alisa’s artistic practice combines printmaking with installation, video projections, and sound art. Snippets of memories evoked from images and words drawn from her family archives capture her personal history, creating a fragmented and resewn narrative. The questioning of memory, its capacity for veracity, or its unconscious distortions is at the heart of her research. These same themes resonate with her emerging curatorial practice. She is most interested in people and their stories and is committed to curating with care, care not only for the works but also, and especially, for the individuals who create.
Alisa Arsenault has been working as the Curator of Community Outreach at the Galerie d’art Louise-et-Reuben-Cohen since 2019. She is an active member of the Imago Print Studio and Secretary of its Board of Directors. Her first large-scale curatorial project, fait main | handmade, is on view at the Galerie d’art Louise-et-Reuben-Cohen until March 27, 2022. Alisa is currently working on a publication of this exhibition, which will be released in the fall of 2022.