Summer 2024: Se souvenir du futur (Remembering the Future)
One of the work I completed during my last June residency is Se souvenir du futur (Remembering the Future). (…..)
“Remembering the future” is an expression attributed to Soren Kierkegaard, the Danish philosopher. This quote resonates in us deeply because it reflects a universal human experience.
We all engage in a form of “future memory” through our hopes, dreams, and anxieties. When we envision a bright future filled with possibilities, or fear a bleak one fraught with hardship, we are essentially constructing mental images of what may come. (…..)
For the complete text, click here.
General studio photo: Louise Noël
Winter 2024
M.David & Co. is pleased to announce Shadow Selves, an exhibition featuring work by Hannah Ehrlich, Susan Luss, and Louise Noël.
Shadow Selves: Revealing Otherness
by Paul D’Agostino
Just as shadows themselves can manifest in manifold ways according to shifting circumstances, so too can expressions of, and understandings gained through, shadow selves. (…..) (…..) While Louise Noël shares many of the same conceptual concerns and ideas of material collaboration with Ehrlich and Luss, her relationship to scale, expressive registers, and implicit references to corporeality are quite different. (…..)
For the complete text, click here.
Photo: Louise Noël
In this book, Louise Noël describes the emotions that have guided her on her journey as a visual artist. She draws a connection between her professional experience of the past, experience that was based on Attachment Theory, and her creative endeavours of the present.
Des deux côtés, faces 1 et 2 (On Both Sides, sides 1 and 2)
Encaustic, fabric, silk, plant material, R&F Pigment Sticks, on metal support; 18” (34”) x 23” x 4”.
HURT—Residency with Michael David
M. David & Co, Brooklyn, NY
February 27-March 10, 2019 (Opening: March 8, 2019)
Crossing into Nowhere: Parenting an Idea
Crossing into Nowhere was not meant to be—something else had been. Participating in the “Hurt” residency with Michael David in Brooklyn, New York, with those seven other artists, was an experience in living and creating. I needed to be open to the unpredictable and the unexpected; to be able to tolerate the feeling that nothing was happening, when, in fact, so much was; to be very present in the here and now; to accept incertitude and imperfection; and to respect intuition and materials.
For me, the room in which we worked was an elastic, puzzling, tentative space. The time we had together was filled with unease, dissatisfaction, discomfort, fear, frustration, anger—but also hope; and dark blue skies and wind; and people, wine, and laughter… Anything could take place, from the absurd to the poignant. Often, I found myself walking around with a sensation of drifting.
And then suddenly it unfolded. I will always remember holding the unravelling bolt of silk: I had an intention, but the fabric behaved only as it should, offering new possibilities. In this moment, I saw it; I was able to listen to it, to let it be. Unexpectedly, I found myself with a 12-foot-high flowing black mark, a being screaming to survive. Gradually, with much trial and error, this assemblage of materials, ideas, emotions—this mix of darkness and fluidity, presence and intensity, solidity and airiness said to me, “This is it. I am here. I am now. I am.”
And it was done. The time after was as strange as the time before, but in a different way: My hands were empty; I had no more to do. I was capable of nothing else in that moment. And once again I found myself walking around with that sensation of drifting.
More and more, I see that to be an artist is to be an implement, forging, steeling oneself, ready to give life to an idea, and not necessarily the one most evident.
It’s being able to birth this idea, with both discipline and empathy, to then nurture it, and to finally let it go.
It’s being a dreamer, a “time waster” and an actor, a builder.
It’s being both sad and happy, fearful and strong, hurting and growing, standing alone and coming together—always.
Participating in this residency, working with Michael David, being witness to the travails and successes of the other artists has been a privilege and an invaluable experience. Michael David has the knowledge, skills, respect, and empathy to offer a secure and stimulating space where an artist can grow and mature. With him, I have become better able to reflect upon my work and to understand where I am coming from, where I am, and where I am going.
Louise Noël
Montreal, Quebec, Canada