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Valérie Blass: Théâtre d’objets at Parisian Laundry, Montréal

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Valérie Blass, La partie pour la chose, 2013. Digital print, watercolour on matte paper, 12 x 18″ Courtesy the artist and Parisian Laundry, Montréal

Valérie Blass
Théâtre d’objets
16 January – 15 February 2014
at Parisian Laundry, Montréal

Opening: Wednesday 15 January 2014, 18h00

Théâtre d’objets includes one of the artist’s latest series where interests that have been at the crux of her practice are realized photographically and presented in parallel to her sculptures. These images represent staged scenes of puppeteers manipulating objects from the artist’s studio, here Blass provides us with a literal window into the theatre of objects that has underscored her practice for the past decade. The actors in these scenes represent the nuance of her work, they remain in the shadows, subtle and discrete, they are the props for the objects of the artists’ desire. This inter-changeability between subject and object represents the essence of Blass’ captivating visual language. The exhibition occupies both Parisian Laundry’s main floor and the gallery’s bunker space.
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Highlighting the overlooked – In conversation with Valérie Blass


Photo by Nat Gorry

Montréal artist Valérie Blass is currently showing her solo exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art of Montréal, featuring new works as well as more from the past four years. Blass produces hybrid objects by employing various sculptural techniques – casting, carving, modelling, assemblage and more. Her creative point of departure is always about the materials, which range from the hand-made to the industrially fabricated. In exploring the aesthetic connections between techniques and style, her work deals with confrontations of forms and negotiates with multiple sources of meanings. As a result, her art is playful, humorous and idiosyncratic yet often evokes disturbed, sinister and cynical connotations. M-KOS interviews Blass during the opening of her exhibition.

MKOS: Valérie Blass, this is your first solo museum exhibition, how long have you been preparing for that?

Valérie Blass [VB]: For about a year I’ve been working on new pieces, I’m also showing a few older works from the past three or four years. This show was hard work because some of my recent pieces went to art fairs and sold immediately, and I never saw them again. It was hard to produce so many works that could amalgamate together and be consistent. [Curator] Lesley Johnstone helped me to put the show together but I still found it difficult because I never did this before, to create affinities between my recent and not so recent work.
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