Hyperborée
paper, glass, rubber bands
I went to Norway. Winter. For the Northern lights. Before going, I saw images and movies about the lights. Seemed impressive. I thought that it would be a nice challenge to try to do an artwork about it. Or with it. Or whatever. Just something in these circumstances.
I had done things on the road before once or twice. So I thought it wouldn't be a bid deal.
Turns out, Northern lights are beyond description, and trying to get something from that feeling in a object seemed wildly impossible. But a challenge is a challenge. So I tried.
I went to a shop. It was between Christmas and New Year's eve and in this region of the globe, there's not a lot of places that are open. A Mini-market it was. I went to the office supplies, and found a neat all white notebook. That would have been for the drawing of the Northern lights. I took also a batch of rubber bands, all the same color, natural that is. On my way out, there was a stand with items on sale. Among them wooden picks to do brochettes. I knew it wouldn't help with the drawings but I was kind of attracted to them.
I hit the road hunting the Northern lights. A few stops along the way for gas and coffee. Driving on the snow when it's all dark outside and 3pm in the same time is a bit confusing for my habits. While stopping, I decided to use the pages of the notebook to do something else than drawing since the task, again, seemed impossible. I took a page of paper, the picks, the rubber bands and some snow to make small sculptures. I took a picture and destroyed the sculpture. I threw out the picks and the rubber bands, but kept the paper, a little wet from the contact with the snow.
I did thirteen of these sculptures.
Coming home, I took the now dry but curled pages and tried to find a way to keep a hint of their origins. I decided to still consider them as drawings, and thus to frame them. I used two sheets of glass and some new rubber bands to hold them together as frames.
For the first exhibition of these drawings, I had the possibility to do a small publication, so I used the pictures of the sculptures.
