Description

For 45˚37’58.20″ N, -74˚19’02.27″O (The Elm Tree) two copies of a photograph of a large elm tree in a field were printed on large sheets of Japanese washi paper using an inkjet printer. Each of the sheets was cut into vertical strips that were then folded in half. These were woven on a temporary loom. A linen thread was used as the horizontal warp. On one side of the weaving, the tree is a continuous image, while on the reverse side, the strips do not align as expected and the image is distorted. The weaving hangs in space so it can be viewed from both sides. The tree in the work is near La Chute, Québec and the title includes its geographic.
Two versions of this work exist, this one is slightly larger than 45˚37’58.20″ N, -74˚19’02.27″O (The Elm Tree 1) having been created for installation in a much larger venue Turn and Return / Faire et refaire , Prince Takamado Gallery, Canadian Embassy , Tokyo, Japan, 2015.


Statement

The elm was the inspiration for several works on paper and has a special place in my heart. My partner and I would often visit it, just to see how it was doing. This excellent example of the species, like most has a graceful, umbrella-shaped tree form. A solitary elm is often found in the middle of a field – the farmer having chosen to plant around it rather than to cut it down. Many of the species, American Elm have been attacked by disease, so when you find one that has managed to survive, it’s impressive. I see elms as a symbol of art and the artist in society.



Exhibition History

Actions collectives : Regards féministes sur la collection
group
2025
Musée d'art de Joliette, Joliette, Québec, Canada
Statement

Cette exposition permanente propose une sélection d’œuvres d’artistes femmes qui composent l’exposition virtuelle et éponyme Actions collectives : Regards féministes sur la collection. Ce redéploiement de la collection permanente du Musée d’art de Joliette fait contrepoids à la composition de la collection, qui ne compte aujourd’hui que 12 % d’œuvres réalisées par des femmes.

Les récits qui en émergent se structurent à partir de trois sous-thématiques. La première retrace certaines transformations majeures entourant les conditions sociales et politiques des femmes ainsi que l’engagement politique des artistes du Québec et d’ailleurs. La deuxième mise sur les choix esthétiques et plastiques des femmes artistes à travers l’histoire de l’art. La troisième dresse quant à elle une histoire au féminin propre au MAJ.

source: site web Musée d’art de Joliette

Curator(s)
Julie Alary Lavallée et Renée Filbey
November 27, 2015 – January 28, 2016
Prince Takamado Gallery, Canadian Embassy, Tokyo, Japan
Description

Exhibition with Sarah Bertrand-Hamel, Tsuguo Yanai and Karen Trask at the Prince Takamado Gallery, Canadian Embassy, Tokyo, Japan. November 27th 2015 – opening reception and the exhibition closed on January 28th 2016. All of the works are either made of paper or use paper as a support.

The exhibition, Turn and Return highlights the surprising versatile and enduring, potential of paper to make and to reflect the world. Bertrand-Hamel proposes a series of water colours on paper and drawings on fragments of handmade paper that she sews together to create large murals. Trask presents a series of weavings and installations of printed paper and paper threads spun from dictionary pages and video work inspired by paper. Yanai-san offers a series of cast-paper sculptural works exploring the memory of the source of paper and a return in time towards that source – the tree. What was inside is now outside and vice versa.

The tree as metaphor is omni-present throughout the exhibition. All three artists make work that is created fragment-by-fragment, section-by-section, and moment-by-moment. Turn and Return proposes artmaking as cycles of integrating, disintegrating and re-integrating – an on-going process that is at once: life and death.

Faire et refaire met en relief le potentiel étonnamment polyvalent et constamment renouvelé du papier. Bertrand-Hamel présente une série d’aquarelles, un dessin sur papier fait main et une photographie cousue qui met en scène le travail à l’aquarelle. Trask présente des vidéos inspirées du papier ainsi que des tissages de papier imprimé et de fil de papier fabriqué à partir de pages de dictionnaires. Dans les grandes sculptures de troncs d’arbre en papier moulé de Yanai et dans ses énormes murales d’empreintes d’écorce, le temps décrit de grands arcs, oscillant du dehors au dedans et inversement. Rappelant l’origine matérielle du papier, l’arbre comme métaphore est omniprésent dans l’exposition. Les trois artistes créent des œuvres fragment par fragment, section par section. Faire et refaire évoque l’idée que la création artistique est faite de cycles d’intégration, de désintégration et de réintégration – un processus continu qui est la fois celui de la vie et de la mort.

Curator(s)
Karen Trask, Sarah Bertrand-Hamel, Tsuguo Yanai
Other Artist(s)
Sarah Bertrand-Hamel, Tsuguo Yanai