A first look at the exhibition catalogue at the Projet Jean Berger Project finissage.
Thank you again to all of the professors, artists, Dr. Gagnon, the FOFA gallery, and all who helped and supported in order to make the Jean Berger Project possible!
Why were you drawn to this project?
I was drawn to this project for a number of reasons. For one, Montreal is one of the oldest cities in Canada, but the typical narratives told about this period are the ones in textbooks or in museums. I was interested in the challenge of bringing fragmented histories of Jean Berger into the present, and was intrigued to see what directions the contemporary artists would take this idea. How would they meet this impossible challenge? I wanted to be part of this unique project that bridged these two periods in time, and re-envisioned the past in a way that moves beyond textbook and museum frameworks of history.
How did these works complicate ideas of Montreal history and art history?
Each of the six artists approached Jean Berger’s period differently, whether they focused on the seedy sides of life in New France, women’s roles in the period, First Nations histories, or re imagining the saints and religious history of Montreal in the present day. But together their works spoke to the multiplicity of histories, and re think how we might come to understand the pasts despite the many missing pieces. I love that this exhibition brought together young emerging artists and curators, and together we explored, questioned, and presented a re-imagining of art history, Montreal, and our relationships to the past. At the same time the works and ideas were very much rooted in the present. These works and the curatorial intention was never to replicate or reenact history, but offered a series of historical and imagined historical trajectories that intersect or move along beside the established national narratives of Berger and life New France, and I was excited to see how these alternatives came together for the Jean Berger Project.
What drew you to this project? What more can you tell us about the works by Wahsontiio Cross and Laura Findlay, as you worked closely with both of those artists?
Why did I initially get excited about a curatorial project based on Jean Berger… Well, I was excited to put all the theory and research skills I had been honing throughout my graduate degree into practice!
I’m really happy with the end result and I think it’s interesting how all of these art works show, together, that history is non-linear and includes multiple voices, voices that aren’t necessarily represented in traditional Canadian history text books. I think Cross’ work especially demonstrates this, and Findlay’s too. In the history text book I remember we used at my high school, there was maybe a page dedicated to women in New France and perhaps a section about the Iroquois and the Hurons. This really just can’t suffice.
I think that through looking back, there’s also an element of looking at the present that’s part of the process. When I realized this, I thought to myself, “So, where are women in Quebec today? Have their social, political, and economic circumstances changed? What about for the Kanienkehaka?” It was these kinds of questions that helped me to reflect on the past, through the present.
What drew you to this project? Seeing it finally come together, what do these works say together?
Originally, I was drawn to the project as a chance to work as a team in the curatorial process of such a large show. After hearing Dr. Gagnon speak so enthusiastically about the project I found that my own sensibilities as an aspiring art historian could be useful to a project like this. My interest in “forgotten” landscapes and cultures as well as the seedier side of Montreal all interested me.
After selecting the artists though, what ultimately influenced the project was the diversity with which Concordia students and Alumni were interested in such a topic too. The artist’s methods of approaching the character and history of Jean Berger, from embroidery and mapping to graphic comic culture, further confused the notion of “Jean Berger,” who and what he was, I think the confusion and lack of information makes this project extremely interesting.
What noteworthy ideas or critical questions arose through the works you wrote about for the exhibition? What do you feel they added to the exhibition?
Joanna Lemon’s work begged the question of mapping for me - a key concern with many post-colonial studies of a place or nation. I was interested in how Lemon, a student of Montreal architecture herself, would use a historical map of Montreal in a contemporary work of art. Julian Peters’ work also questioned narrative as he explores Jean Berger’s story through comic drawings. I thought it was interesting how he made critical judgements on the characters, he seemed to be the only artist to attempt to give a face to Jean Berger’s name. It was a daring and appreciated move on his part I think!
———- Lindsay Cory, member of the Jean Berger Project curatorial team
Projet Jean Berger Project Finissage & Catalogue Launch
Wednesday, May 23, 6 to 8 p.m.
Speeches by Dr. Johanne Sloan (Graduate Program Director, Dept. of Art History, Concordia University) and Dr. François-Marc Gagnon (Founding Director & Distinguished Research Fellow of the Gail & Stephen A. Jarislowsky Institute for Studies in Canadian Art) will take place at 6:30 pm.
Exhibition ongoing:
to May 27, 2012
Where:
FOFA Gallery, Faculty of Fine Arts, Concordia University
1515 Ste. Catherine Street W., EV 1.715
Montreal, Quebec (Metro Guy Concordia)
Gallery hours:
Monday to Friday, 11 a.m. to 7 p.m.
Cost:
Free admission. Everyone welcome.
Projet Jean Berger Project
Wahsontiio Cross, Stephanie Coleman, Laura Findlay, Joanna Lemon, Julian Peters & David J. Romero
Curated by Jessa Alston-O’Connor, Lindsay Cory, Corina Ilea & Maya Soren
Jean Berger always claimed to be a painter in front of his judges. Beyond these statements, no evidence exists of his works or artistic career. Instead, the breadth of historical information surrounding his life originates from court documents chronicling his many problems with the justice system and the resulting masterful avoidance of punishment that culminated in his escape from prison to New England around 1710. The attempt to construct Berger’s history proves to be a challenging one, but from all recovered traces of his life, his missing (art)work stands out.
Projet Jean Berger Project explores the inevitable gaps that determine historical research and knowledge. This project envisions the absence of knowledge about Jean Berger as a space for productive interpretation and creation to be filled in by the imagination of the artists. This “blurred” knowledge makes room for intersections between art, historical research, artistic practice and curatorial strategies.
Projet Jean Berger Project was initiated by a core collective of art history graduate students in response to Dr. François-Marc Gagnon’s 40 years of research culminating in his book, Jean Berger, peintre et complice? (2010). Dr. François-Marc Gagnon and Dr. Johanne Sloan (Graduate Program Director, Dept. of Art History) will speak about the Project at the finissage at 6:30 pm. The artists and curators will also be in attendance. The full colour catalogue contains texts
written by each of the curators, interviews with the artists, and images of all works. The edition is limited but can be purchased at the finissage for $15.00.
The artists and curators of the Jean Berger Project have been busy installing the exhibition this past week. The exhibition will be up from April 30th to May 25th in the vitrine of the FOFA gallery at Concordia, be sure to take a look this month. Tonight is the performance by David Romero at 7pm. The exhibition finissage and catalogue launch will be held on May 22nd at 6 pm, see you there!
Joseph Yarmush, our photographer for the exhibition publication
Laying out labels for Laura Findlay’s photo series
Stephanie Coleman and an assistant installing her toile.
How long have you known Jean Berger for?
Just recently. But who really knows him?
What is your idea of what his works may have looked like?
I can imagine he was able to create anything he thought up.
How would you describe him?
I imagine he was a man who both stood out, yet could blend in. A shape-shifter if you will.
What drew you to this project?
The opportunity to tell history from a different perspective
What discoveries or challenges have you have encountered along the way?
Narrowing down my ideas. Whose stories do I tell? What bits and pieces do I include/exclude?
Which Mohawk histories are you focusing on for your artist book?
I am not pinpointing any specific events. This is a history of the land, which is very much congruent with the story of people. Our relationship to our environment defines us, and I will explore the various relationships to the land, dealing with abundance and loss, connection and separation.
How do these perspectives change or expand upon the typical narratives of New France and Montreal during Jean Bergers era?
Often history reflects the settler views of things and doesn’t take into account the stories that were here when they arrived. We only hear about the notion of place and people in the colonial voice, rather than a native one. The native story is always told from third person perspective, and I want to offer a first-person perspective.
How will your work fill the historical gaps where the people of Kahnawake are concerned?
What types of relationships our people had with the land, even before the “reservation” system was established, before our movements and access to resources were restricted by new and imposing laws. Moving around, sharing, and the notion of home in several places is something the colonists just couldn’t seem to grasp.
How long have you known Jean Berger?
I was introduced to him with the idea of the project, and have gotten to know him better through the pages of the book.
What is your idea of what his works may have looked like? How would you describe him?
It’s hard to imagine a painter working in New France who wouldn’t be inspired by what lay beyond the walls of early Montreal. I imagine his works would have been a mixture of commissioned pieces depicting specific buildings and spaces from the growing city, and landscapes showing the wilderness beyond. I would describe him as a wily survivor, someone who would do what was necessary to make it from day to day but who was probably capable of unwinding at the end of the day like a champion.
What discoveries or challenges have you have encountered along the
way?
My practice normally begins with objects, either for inspiration or as a part of the final piece. What I learned fairly early in my research is that objects from such an early point in history are next to impossible to find. Partially because of a lack of effort to maintain everyday items from such a difficult time and partially because of the objects that people did have they were either hand-crafted from available materials or imported which make them hard to distinguish from items from Europe from the same era. Not being able to look at or be around artifacts from the era is what led me to the project as it stands now, using my research to make my own relics, those of which talk about the ideas and issues I’ve become most interested in.
Can you tell us a bit about your family history in Quebec, how does
your aesthetic communicate this history?
My grandmother was very old blood in Quebec with members of our family insisting it date back to the early 18th century. Unfortunately there exists no hard evidence to this fact, but my interest in learning about this era is driven in part to better understand her and her life and the lives of the women who preceded her. I’m using lighting and a studio setup that’s less clean and precise for these photos. I’ve found myself trying to think about what the light of the night in the city would have been like, and how hard daily life really was. This has probably translated to the dark mood of the final photos with more dramatic lighting.
What do you know about the women of New France?
Going into this project I had only the information family history and late night movies on the CBCto guide me about what the lives of the first immigrants to Quebec would have lived like. Since beginning research for this project my entire view of the early history of Quebec has sharpened. The information I’ve learned about the early structure of the city and the people who made it happen has given me a fresh perspective on how unique Quebec and its culture truly are, and what’s made it into what it exists as today.
April 30th-May 25th, 2012.
Faculty of Fine Arts Gallery,
Concordia University, Montreal, Canada
Jean Berger always claimed to be a painter in front of his judges. Beyond these statements, no evidence exists of his works or artistic career. Instead, the breadth of historical information surrounding his life originates from court documents chronicling his many problems with the justice system: accusations of money forgery, mugging, and the resulting masterful avoidance of punishment that culminated in his escape from prison to New England around 1710.
Was he a painter of signs? Of decorative motifs? Of portraits? Of religious tableaux? The attempt to construct Berger’s history proves to be a challenging one. His life belongs to a remote past, fragmentarily accessed through testimonies, historical documents, and archival notes. Moreover, from all recovered traces of his life, his missing (art)work stands out. This exhibition will interrogate the act of storytelling and the transmission of historical knowledge: Who gets to tell the stories? How is it possible to tell stories in a way that makes them engaging, answering to the affective power of the missing pieces? How can we select voices, perspectives, characters? What narratives remain untold and not passed along as history? Seeing the court testimonies not only as evidence of Montreal's 18th century history, but as pieces of active autobiographical writing, we can engage with them through the lens of contemporary art.
The process of recovering the past is marked by inherent lapses of information, which can be filled by the agency of imagination. The Jean Berger Project will look at the inevitable gaps that determine historical research and knowledge. In an essay accompanying Sylvia Kolbowski’s project An Inadequate History of Conceptual Art, art historian Rosalyn Deutsche clarifies the term inadequacy, explaining that it does not indicate “the presence of deficiencies that can and must be corrected…Rather, inadequate describes the condition of all cultural histories, since history is a representation of – a narrative about – the past and therefore unequal to reality”*. Similarly, this project envisions the absence of knowledge about Jean Berger as a space for productive interpretation and creation. This “blurred” knowledge will make room for intersections between art, historical research, artistic practice and curatorial strategies. The creative noise thus produced by subsequent series of inadequacies will be the challenge posed by The Jean Berger Project.
*Deutsche, Rosalyn. “Inadequacy.” Silvia Kolbowski: Nothing and Everything. Curated by Michèle Thériault. Montreal: Leonard & Bina Ellen Gallery, 2009. 21-28. Print.
5 story mural
500 cans of spray paint
16 days
Mt-Royal #montreal #bw
Shot some photos of Montreal. Love this city!
Taken at Tricia Middleton’s “Dark Souls” exhibit at the Montreal Museum of Contemporary Art in...
