Faire des doubles – The surety of more-than-one

SNAP is pleased to present Faire des doubles – The surety of more-than-one, an exhibition by Michelle LaSalle. The exhibition will be in the gallery May 6 – June 10, 2023.

Opening Reception May 6, 7-9pm

ARTIST TALK: Thursday, May 11, 6pm-7:30pm (In person)

We sit in a piece of time. The minutes become both tangible and vaporous, like they’re the stuff of clouds,  floating, suitcase-sized, right above our heads. As ordinary and unremarkable as the clouds we exhale into the harshness of February, or those expelled from the nozzle of an espresso machine to make clouds  out of hot milk. 

An everyday cloud – Une buée de tous les jours. 

Faire des doubles – The surety of more than one reflects on the slippery moments that link personal  memories to the objects and images we archive. These works arise out of an intuitive investigation into  the stories our collections might tell. They are a tribute to the passage of time and the traces it leaves on  our objects and ourselves. The process was an unearthing of memories and their objects, objects and their memories, as ritual and artistic practice—opening a long-sealed box, developing an unknown roll of film,  remembering details, attempting to thread them together only to miss the needle’s eye, and then giving  it another go. 

Various presentation devices, such as tables, plinths, and hooks, activate the works’ multiple nature. A box  with hinges on all sides reveals hidden compartments housing dozens of woodblocks. A cloth napkin imprinted on paper sees a shift in its worth— it has left a trace, and there are copies. Leftover copper matrices have been transformed, they have become the work itself or the hooks and shelves that are used to display it. Every image more-than-once. I am driven to collect them as if to offset some—including my own—impermanence. 

There is a casual performance component as I am present with the works. I handle, place, move, and sort  the images. Touch, a careful and slowed pace, as well as my sustained and attentive presence impart  meaning to them. The stories they tell are never the same twice—they are made as they are moved,  broken as they are moved, and they have no end. 

Memories—and the stories they move in—are malleable.

About the Artist

Michelle LaSalle lives and works in Tio’tia:ke – Mooniyang – Montreal. While her practice is multidisciplinary, she is primarily interested in printmaking and its deployment within a space. She holds an MFA in Print Media from Concordia University (2022) and a BFA in visual and media arts from Université du Québec à Montréal (UQÀM). Winner of the 2021 Denis-Charland scholarship and the 2014 Albert-Dumouchel prize, she participated in and exhibited her work in several national and provincial artist residencies. In 2023, her project Une buée de tous les jours will be the subject of a duo exhibition at Arprim in Montreal and a solo exhibition at SNAP in Edmonton. She was also selected for Trois-Rivière’s 13th International Contemporary Print Biennial.