Deploying exceptional craftsmanship and remarkable poetic sensibility, Amélie Proulx highlights, in each of her works, the power of nature, the passage of time, and the perpetual metamorphosis of life. In “Substrat nocturne,” the artist explores various cyclical temporalities, illustrating them with evocative natural metaphors, while the rich iconography contributes to a renewal of still life.
“Les herbes de passage” depict the nocturnal life cycles of animals such as owls and bats. Through intricately crafted fanciful murals, the artist underscores the essential role of certain species in landscape transformation and their vital, albeit often overlooked, contribution to biodiversity regeneration. The ecological phenomenon of zoochory, a natural process of seed dispersal by animals essential for plant reproduction and propagation, is illustrated here. By tangibly translating the invisible manifestations of the natural world, Amélie Proulx invites us to reflect on our relationship with the living, emphasizing the need to work in harmony with nature to ensure the balance and longevity of our ecosystems.
Through her series “Les horizons marqueurs,” Proulx delves into the long temporality of geology, sometimes revealed through the successive layers of sedimentary rocks, delineating timeless horizontal landscapes. Like a geologist, the artist has traversed the terrain in search of rocks and minerals that she has carefully selected, extracted, and crushed to integrate into her ceramics through a meticulous firing process. Her sensitive works propose a humble encounter between human beings and the land, between nature and culture.
Finally, with “Topiaires d’hiver,” the artist reimagines the tradition of vanitas, a pictorial genre of still life evoking the ephemeral and fragile nature of existence. Enshrined in the heart of a winter garden, elaborately ornamented human skulls, reminiscent of ancient sepulchers unearthed in archaeological digs, are flanked by disco balls, a resolutely modern symbol of nocturnal festivities. Traditionally, the juxtaposition of these two antithetical elements would have served, moralistically, to underscore the emptiness of human pleasures in the face of the inexorability of death. However, in a contemporary reinterpretation of vanity, one can detect a touch of humor and irony in the juxtaposition of skulls and disco balls, an artist’s reminder that in the face of our inevitable demise and the swift passage of time, it is essential to celebrate life.
