The exhibition “Gyre”, reveals the intuitive and innovative work of Montreal artist Catherine Morin. She enjoys taking refuge in the act of painting; finding a comforting solitude in it and lending her imagination a sincere and boundless creative impetus.
In her works, Morin adapts the symbol of the ouroboros, traditionally represented by a snake eating its tail, to more modern themes. She has also developed a growing curiosity towards ceramics, which she describes in many of her recent paintings.
Artist
Catherine Morin
Date
Opening September 5, 2024
Self Eating Blue Dog, 2024
Oil on canvas, 19'' x 26''
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The exhibition “Gyre”, reveals the intuitive and innovative work of Montreal artist Catherine Morin. She enjoys taking refuge in the act of painting; finding a comforting solitude in it and lending her imagination a sincere and boundless creative impetus. She has also developed a growing curiosity towards ceramics, which she describes in many of her recent paintings. This medium, explored by various cultures for thousands of years, captivates Morin due to its humble accessibility, allowing anyone to shape, mold, and reinvent. Coming from the earth, soft and formless at first, the artist transforms the clay into something sublime but fragile. Porcelain, in particular, has a memory of form, making it more difficult to handle. This challenge of taming the earthly sample entices Catherine, who enjoys manipulating this tangible memory: “With globalization, our objects come from further and further away, and I believe this complicates our relationships with them, like a disconnect—we almost forget that people shaped them, where they came from, who and how many people touched and molded them.”
This phenomenon of disconnection and interconnection resonates particularly with the term “gyre,” which notably refers to a system of rotating ocean currents but also more broadly evokes the notion of cycle and perpetual flow. In her works, Morin adapts the symbol of the ouroboros, traditionally represented by a snake eating its tail, to more modern themes. Particularly, the incessant thread of news on social media, endless and unresolved, reflects for her a world in which information is consumed and replaced at a dizzying speed. She also adds a symbol, that of the dog, to enrich her reflection. The dog, embodying both bestiality and gentleness, dominance, and unconditional love, reinforces the idea that human behaviours are shaped by forces, currents, internal and external, most often contradictory.
By incorporating certain objects into her paintings, Morin creates a comfortable environment for her characters, who are then surrounded by their familiar possessions. The artist thus invites us to question our relationship with these objects; are these belongings not witnesses to a detachment and even a form of relational anesthesia regarding the essence of their origin and formation? Accompanied by objects, accessories, and other everyday banalities, the protagonists of the paintings highlight our disconnection from the intrinsic value of these materials, from their process of creation and destruction. Morin reminds us that every daily, ordinary, or habitual element is the result of a complex and rich process, eventually deserving our attention and respect.
