January 25 to April 19, 2015

It was while walking through the city that Chantal Lagacé had her eureka moment. Being in direct contact with her environment, immersed in everything, surrounded by urban shapes and objects linked by every step along the sidewalk, the artist soaked up her environment – the ground beneath her feet, the sky above and minute details here and there. Gradually, the realization dawned that the city was like a self-portrait of today’s society.  

During her strolls around town – these « urban immersions  » – Lagacé goes all over the place, discovering some new construction as she rounds a corner, a neighbourhood business that hasn’t fallen prey to a multinational conglomerate or a building destroyed by fire. She looks very closely at the scene, photographs architectural features, does a sketch, makes a print and picks up bits and pieces from the sidewalks.

All that information and material is gathered together, then assembled, glued, painted and drawn onto a base of paper, canvas, or arranged into a 3D image. The end result is a piece of artwork that sometimes depicts a region, a city centre, an agglomeration, a neighbourhood and an area. Through the Started from the Bottom Up exhibition, the artist offers a fresh look at the city.

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