La forêt noire sculptural installation on until November 30th at the Pierrefonds Cultural Centre
In collaboration with the MAI (Montréal, arts interculturels) and Conseil des arts de Montréal, the Pierrefonds Cultural Centre presents the immersive installation La forêt noire by artist Anna Jane McIntyre. La forêt noire was selected by the Conseil des Arts de Montréal (CAM) for the program Conseil des arts de Montréal en tournée 2019-2020.
La forêt noire is a sculptural installation examining memory and human nature through an abstract soundscape, shadowy forest and surreal cabin.
Sewing together disparate references from British, Trinidadian and Canadian culture La forêt noire looks both to the distant past and present with a gaze flitting between the micro and macro. It is an installation full of shadows and nuances, where important plot points are often disguised as nonsense. Something has either just happened or is just about to happen. La forêt noire is a liminal zone where the rules of conduct are fleeting and foggy.
Designed as a meditative environment, La forêt noire is a space for visitors to quietly tantalize their imaginations as they explore a story-filled universe containing both the familiar and strange, friends and foes. Within this exhibition are portraits, homages, inside jokes, the wind, ghosts, relatives, tropical birds, monks praying, mothers laughing, sons pouring tea, babies watching, copying and wriggling their fingers to understand, Caribbean sugar shacks, shim sham do-gooders, gargoyles and Yorkshire walls. There are many clocks but none of them agree. Silenced voices crowd to tell their stories here. This is a show showcasing the obvious and the forgotten. The noisy and the quiet all have their say. The forest is thinking. There is no guidebook, you must spend some time and unravel it all yourself, or bask in its too-muchness. All are welcome.
This project was made possible through the generous support of the Canada Council for the Arts, Vivacité Montréal through the Conférence régionale des élus de Montréal (CRÉ), the Conseil des arts de Montréal (CAM) and the Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec (CALQ), Art-image et espace Odyssée gallery and the mentorship program of the MAI.
About the artist
Anna Jane McIntyre is an artist with a playful practice that combines storytelling, drawing, sculpture, printmaking, performance and microactivism. Her work investigates how people perceive, create and maintain their notions of self through behaviour and usual cues, and is an ever-shifting visual mashup of British, Trinidadian and Canadian cultural traditions.
 for the program Conseil des arts de Montréal en tournée 2019-2020){kind=link}