Karine Giboulo
By Emilie Zaore-Vanie
After the Modern Fuel, Kingston, it’s the Saskatoon Mendel Art Gallery’s turn to receive the micro shantytown created by Karine Giboulo, Village Démocratie. More than a year after the earthquake, Haiti still bathed in the middle of a crisis that seems so far from Occident. Barriers, as presented in the media, make the problem seem like a huge load of crises, often observed from an distanced angle. In a miniature model of a Haitian village, Karine Giboulo allied with the artist Olia Mishchenko to put forward the story of the citizens, the one that is too often hidden by statistics.
As a part of the Habit-adaptation Exhibition, the miniatures installation represents a Haitian village where a multitude of figures are doing their everyday activities. The miniaturist artist has captured the reality of people living in poor villages, shantytowns of Haiti. Her trip on the island has certainly inspired her to depict the lives of people.
Village Démocratie is a work, but also a real shantytown, near Port-au-Prince. Karine Giboulo was able to recover the real debris during her visit to the village, and then integrate them into her creation. Materials add a realistic and organic aspect to the miniature shantytown. As she has done for her work All you can eat, Karine Giboulo also incorporates the contrast between the situation of the rich countries and the situation of emerging countries. A geometric building skyscrapers encircling the “village” section of the model, reminding the geographical proximity of North America and Haiti, but also the huge distance in terms of life condition.
The differences, especially the links between humans, is central in the work of Karine Giboulo, and after the tragedy that struck Haiti January 12, 2010, the connection between the two worlds of Village Democracy makes a lot of sense. The exhibit begins April 15 and ends June 12, the Mendel Art Gallery in Saskatoon.
Laura Covaci
By Helene Tournesac
Bucharest or the complexity of a city battered by the story of a century of wars. Covaci Laura was born there. And her work does not translate all the sadness of a broken people. She keeps on amazing us, drawing an expression of significant strength in terms of world past events, but also and above all, the possible future.
At the Trinity Gallery of Atlanta and since 1993 in Paris, the artist attempts to detect a plot, one that builds the human species. Failing to seek reasons or answers, Covaci Laura takes advantage of the reflection. Denunciation, accusation, criticism, each method has its reason in many mediums. Distortion, alteration, conversion, the man of yesterday no longer corresponds to what will be our tomorrow. Background story or story form? Laura Covaci bring us to the front of the visible and foreseeable changes of our era. Astride between the twentieth and twenty-first century, humans through time has been transformed by a variety of processes.
“Four Seasons” in 2009 and “Orphanage” in 2011, Gallery 208 questions again alongside the artist … the figure of the doll embodying this time the beaten being. Installations, drawings and digital photographs are also supporting a painting as shaker than appeasing.
Romania is honored; horror dictatorship is a generation that has been hurt. Laura Covaci’s sources of inspiration are notorious and deserve to be peeled to project themselves better into a future almost too close to that of our descendants robotic.
Romania is honored; horror dictatorship is a generation that has been hurt. Laura Covaci’s sources of inspiration are notorious and deserve to be peeled to project themselves better into a future almost too close to that of our descendants robotic.
Gallery 208 Chicheportiche
208 Boulevard Saint Germain 75006 Paris
www.galerie208.fr
Alex Roulette
By Kenneth Koo
“Fabricated Realism†is a series of paintings crafted by American artist Alex Roulette. Teeter-tottering between the realms of the real and the surreal, Roulette depicts an honest but nonetheless fabricated account of the American experience. His muted palettes and fluid brushstrokes come together to create works highly photographic and documentary in nature – snapshots of everyday life evoking a sense of nostalgia coupled with uneasiness.
“Inventing landscapes allow memories of places and events to be fictionalized. Coalescing unrelated photographs is done in a way comparable to the process in which the mind synthesizes images when recollecting memories or imagining new images…†says Roulette in his statement. The disjointed nature of the series no doubt forms an intriguing narrative, left to be imagined by the viewer.
Roulette’s series was recently exhibited at the George Billis Gallery (Los Angeles).
http://www.alexroulette.com
CEAL FLOYER
By Cecile Sodji
“Art is just a demonstration, a Trojan horse for the ideas.” Ceal Floyer. To freeze, to laugh about the words we use, to consider the use of objects that surround us, to pay attention on  spaces and moments that we perceive is what seems to encourage Ceal Floyer. By a simple but careful installation of objects, sounds, lights or images, and titles provoking thoughtful questioning, Ceal Floyer questions the absurdity of everyday life.
The contradictions of reality in which we live seem to arise with humor, habits, routines, references and differences, surprises, unexpected; Ensemble and details; presence, communication, illusion and discretion … The more we look, the more we find, it recalls the fragility of existence and maintains the flexibility of mind. This facility represents the beginning of a show that never took place, society’s desire for drama.
Is Ceal Floyer’s art minimalist and reflexive to everyone? One can discover it for free in Montreal from February 16 to May 16, 2011 at DHC / ART (Old Montreal). As part of an educational project, a workshop is also organized. At the end of the exhibition, every participants will be invited to express themselves collectively as part of an art event, which will close the project.
Be inspired by Ceal Floyer, it may be a chance to liberate the creative mind that can make our lives more fun and create a free spirit!
