Le septième pétale d’une tulipe-monstre
Galerie d’art Louise-et-Reuben-Cohen, Université de Moncton, 25 January-26 March 2023
When entering the exhibition Le septième pétale d’une tulipe-monstre at Galerie d’art Louise-et-Reuben-Cohen, I was taken aback by the emotional rawness of the works. At first, the pieces seemed strange and unsettling. However, upon further examination, I started to admire the way they combined human and non-human elements. Curator Elise Anne LaPlante has done a wonderful job imagining human bodies outside of their traditional physical context. The exhibition features artists Caroline Bolieau, Mimi Haddam, Ikumagialiit, Helena Martin Franco, Dominique Rey, and Winnie Truong, and together their work inspires people to ask questions about how normativity controls our perspective on bodies, and how to approach the subject of bodies with imagination instead of realism.
The exhibition highlights how the corporeal can be understood from multiple perspectives. In the work of Helena Martin Franco and Winnie Truong, for example, human figures merge with elephants, plants, and other animals while human limbs protrude all over. Dominique Rey’s pieces demonstrate the hectic and interconnected relationship between mother and child, with works highlighting the transformative effects and the constant balance of motherhood. Blurring the lines between our bodies and the mechanisms of the external world, the multiple works in this exhibition take visitors on an adventure through metamorphosis, inviting them to consider bodily transformation in new ways.
This exhibition forces people to question what they know about human bodies and encourages the acceptance of them in all their states. It urges visitors to imagine life as an interconnected spectrum, a collection of separate beings. This in turn allows people to connect to the theme of human and non-human relationships. While the art seemed a little odd at first glance, as I began to ponder the exhibition’s message, I understood its beauty.
— Lexi Delong, 2023
Lexi Delong (she/her) is a fourth year Mount Allison University student completing a double major in Sociology and Visual and Material Culture Studies. She enjoys art, nature, books, music, and animals, and she is passionate about environmental awareness and encouraging equality for all people. She is grateful to have had the opportunity to write this review, which gave her a new perspective on the uniqueness of the human body. As a bilingual New Brunswick resident, she was pleased to experience this exhibition in French, and then write the review in English.
