Chantal duPont: Le point de fuite
Commissaire / Curator Anne Golden
In her video ‘Du front tout le tour de la tête’, Chantal duPont states ‘C’est le point de fuite que je prefère.’ The vanishing point is something she contemplates/engenders in several of her videos. Many of her works feature a camera that spins. Or the artist herself spins. There is unsteadiness in spinning but we are in good hands and when it stops we will have been shown something anew.
Chantal duPont created artworks that focus on fragility, on the correlation between her own skin and the now almost obsolete video tape/membrane. In her later works, duPont’s body is central. She stages herself to consider illness, managing at the same time to create works that evoke a supple approach to the use of technology. She also stages herself to record her own wonder at performing with objects that alter her appearance. The artist plays against fixity by constantly transforming images and/or objects. Her artworks cause new spaces through combinations and surprising juxtapositions of on/under, above/below, and far/near.
In works such as Voir au-delà (2008), Visages (2013) and Les yeux dans les yeux (2016) Chantal’s gaze is tender, intelligent, curious. She may like the vanishing point, but she also serves as an anchor, a fixed point.
When I think of Chantal duPont, I think of her radiating keen curiosity and wonder. She was intensely inquisitive and possessed a formidable determination to create. For her final exhibition, Chantal was present most days [1]. I admired her capacity to anchor herself firmly in the present, greeting friends, family and spectators with a smile. It was remarkable to be in the presence of someone so engaged and active and eager to share her work.
[1] The exhibition ‘Chantal duPont – corps-mémoire, une conversation’ was curated by Nicole Gingras and held from January 14-19, 2019 at Hexagram, Agora Hydro-Québec.
To watch the English version click here
