By Rachel Muston
Le Centre d’artistes Voix Visuelle, situated on Vanier's northern edge, qualifies as a Vanier institution. Located on Beechwood, the art centre featuring francophone artists and their contemporary space has been around for almost five years. The centre focuses primarily on “imagery art (digital art, photography, video) and three-dimensional works (sculpture, installation)” but also dedicates their space to art education projects.
Their current exhibitions are worth checking out:
Weather Report by Andrzej Maciejewski is a fascinating set of 24 photographs of a rural landscape taken over the course of a one-year period. Using a camera obscura, with the image printed as a circle, you feel as if you are inside the camera looking out. Make sure to look for the ones that were taken at night but appear like daylight. Taken with an hour-long exposure, the only way to tell that they were shot at night are the streaks of stars in the seemingly sunny sky.
A large set of black and white photographs and a video installation complete Stéphanie Morissette’s Vide? exhibition. The photos and video show a young woman dragging large metal hooks along a beach and through the water in search of natural resources. The images are stark and create a thought provoking visualization of the depletion of our raw materials.
Weather Report and Vide? are on display at Le Centre d’artistes Voix Visuelle until April 8, 2014.
Le Centre d’artistes Voix Visuelle is located at 67 Beechwood Avenue (2nd floor - above Clothes Encounters of a Second Kind). The gallery is open from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., Tuesday to Saturday.
Images: (top) Andrzej Maciejewski - photo - Weather Report; (right) Stéphanie Morissette - photo - Vide?