Collection: Marilyne Bissonnette

Marilyne Bissonnette is an artist from Lanaudière who lives and works in Montreal. With a master's degree in visual arts from Laval University, she directs her research towards the notions of singularity, norms, and belonging using sculpture and installation as her predominant forms of expression. Her work brings together a large number of animal or human heads in plaster to form large crowds. This questions the rituals, customs, and systems that guide individuals towards their collective and individual identities. In addition to her artistic practice, she also works as an art mediator in mental health and as a curator with the organization Les Impatients. Her artistic work has been presented in various galleries, fairs, and festivals in Quebec, including at the Maison de la culture de Rosemont, Chromatic, and the Manif d’art de Québec with the Collective 5 of which she has been an active member since 2015. She is the recipient of various awards and grants, including the Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec Research-Creation/Emerging Artist Grant.

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Approach

My artistic creations generally emerge from sculpture and installation processes. My research revolves around the notions of singularity and the sense of belonging which are related to what bonds individuals to a crowd, to a society shaped by well defined systems. I’m also interested to the notions of innate and acquired, of nature and culture, of discipline and chaos.

My creations include sculptural canvas and sculptures in which large numbers of plaster animal and human faces can be found. Those individuals share very restricted spaces forming groups with strong identities and shared behaviours. It creates a common sense of belonging that goes beyond the individuals. Despite this, differences can be observed among them, breaking the harmony of the group and questioning the idea the commonness. My creations are composed of sets of closed packed bodies that respond to a norm and in which a small difference become an anchor of identity.

The making of my sculptures include a precise molding process. The multiplication of plaster pieces made with care ultimately allow me to create crowds. However, I voluntarily allow small imperfections in the molding results or from the manipulation of the pieces be part of the creations. I let those imperfections express themselves. I also add some well calculated modifications that smoothly blend in a whole creation.

My work is one on the dogma of time, on the rocking of the daily routine, on the strict rituals of modern civilization in which everything seems to be calculated, sorted and categorized. Through my artistic approach, I question the way structures and systems shape our individual and common daily routines. I question the norms that emerge from them and how they influence our attitude towards our surroundings and how they shape our own identity.