Two Videos posted on youtube

Video of installation “Make a Wish” :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uNNTMd-WLAM

And video accompanying the Sculpture “Theatre-Trunk” in the installation “Borderline”:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MQEWbAbC9QA

Waves/Vagues

Presented  at Centre d’Exposition CIRCA

May 22nd- June 19th, 2010

372 Rue Ste-Catherine West

Montreal, QC

(514) 393-8248

Sculpture, video and sound

This installation is a visual poem I offer you, so you can let yourself float with the waves. Take your time, walk around, sit down and imagine you are at the theatre. You are both spectator and actor. I share my story because I am asked to tell ; but it is your own story that will speak to you.

Waves/Vagues is inspired by the climate of fear and insecurity prevailing in the USA these days. Whether politically, socially, ecologically or economically, there is always a crisis. The tension is palpable, and I question how this unsettling context affects our daily lives. Beyond the particular social and contextual circumstances, which inform this project, underlie cultural identity issues. Living within the culture and the language of the other means that we are divided, so we become observers, translators, and we compare. Why is it that in Quebec, we do not feel the American stress? Is it that the wave hasn’t yet crossed the border?

The tension of duality is a recurrent theme in my work. Being a twin plays a role in the origin of this desire for TWO. The installation’s dynamic is based on the idea of a dividing line. Combined with the displacement of the familiar, where sea waves animate the surfaces of an over-stretched kitchen table, illusion and reality are orchestrated to challenge our perception. Being the core of the display, the dividing plane operates as an imaginary mirror, where the illusion of perfect synchronicity only lasts a moment, depending on the point of view.

Sculpture, vidéo et bande sonore

L’œuvre est un poème visuel que je te donne à voir spectateur, pour que tu te laisses porter par les vagues. Prends ton temps, circule, assieds-toi et imagine que tu es au théâtre. Tu es spectateur et acteur. Mon histoire n’est qu’un point de référence, que je partage parce qu’on me demande de dire ; mais c’est ton histoire à toi qui te parlera.

Vagues/Waves s’inspire du climat aigu d’instabilité et d’insécurité que nous vivons présentement aux États-Unis. Que ce soit au niveau social, politique, écologique ou économique, rien ne va plus, la tension est palpable, et je questionne comment se traduit ce climat de crise dans nos vies. Au-delà des circonstances sociales/contextuelles particulières qui informent ce projet, s’ajoutent, en trame de fond, le fait de l’identité culturelle  et le rapport à l’autre. Vivre dans la culture et dans la langue de l’autre, c’est se diviser; on devient observateur, traducteur, et on compare. Pourquoi, au Québec, on ne ressent pas ce stress américain ? La vague n’a pas traversé la frontière ?

La tension des polarités est un thème récurent dans mon travail. Ma gémellité joue un rôle dans ce désir du DEUX. Dans l’installation, la dynamique opère à partir d’une ligne de division et du déplacement de ce qui est familier, où des vagues animent les surfaces d’une table de cuisine séparée et étirée au maximum. Illusion et réalité sont orchestrées de façon à défier notre perception. Placé au centre, le plan qui divise le dispositif en deux crée un effet miroir où l’illusion de parfaite synchronicité ne dure qu’un moment, tout dépend du point de vue.

Make a Wish

A three channel video, sound and sculpture installation.

The project is composed of: three 46 inches galvanized steel rings on the floor, 12 inches high, which suggest containers to collect rain from a leaking roof. They are also projection surfaces with mirrors adjusted to reflect images from digital projectors above each container. A reflective wall piece titled “In Control” serves as a counterpoint to the chaos and echoes the domestic theme.

Three video sequences are synchronized to form a loop of 8 minutes and 15 seconds apiece, where rain and thunder form the continuous background we hear and see. A different event appears in each container: Waves shows coffee being stirred while radio extracts list the words most heard on the news since the events of 9.11; Economist Soup deals with social turmoil and the difficulty of assimilating all that is happening; and Maison uses a child’s nightmare of a house being flooded and invaded by sharks as a symbol to combine recent economic and ecologic events.

Images of Installation

Presented @ Gallery 119, Lowell, MA. Oct-Nov. 2009

Partial view of installation

Stills of video projection sequence 1. Waves

Stills from video projection, sequence 2. Economist Soup

Stills from video projection, sequence 3. Maison

Wall piece: In Control...

Make a Wish

Oct 20 – Nov 14, 2009

Lowell, MA — Video, sculpture & sound installation.

Canadian sculptor and multi-media artist Denise Dumas investigates boundaries and identity. As an immigrant, she is keenly aware of the borders and intersections of cultural, social and political interaction. Dumas believes that reality changes according to the environment and social context that we inhabit. She finds that current economic ills and political fears have created an insidious climate of insecurity that permeates our daily lives. Dumas’ video installation is a metaphor for this troubled climate, her stormy environment mirroring the unsettling times in which we live.

A three-channel video projection, Make A Wish combines images of thunderstorms and water with an accompanying soundtrack of voiced concerns to envelop the gallery in an electrical storm of uncertainty.  Watery surfaces spill with a myriad of visions that form a layered collage of contemporary troubles. Mixing real and virtual imagery, Dumas creates multiple points of view that redefine domestic, political, ecological, social, and economic ideas.

Dumas–” My work addresses psychologically charged situations, while exploring the language and its inventive uses, to visually translate aspects of human behavior and consciousness. This takes form in the metaphorical situations I create, in which I either perform, film, or use my sculptures as theatre or as actors.”

Dumas installation is intended to empower us by eliciting our resolve in the face of real and conjured threats. Like the artist, we are to summon our own sense of individual identity as a rudder to navigate through confusing circumstances and environments.

Reception Saturday October 24, 3- 6 pm

Hours: Tue-Sat, 12 noon-5 pm.

119 Chelmsford Street Lowell, MA  01851

978.452.8138 http://www.119gallery.org