My projects attempt to modify emotional memory linked to the recognition of certain objects. When we remember an object, our memory doesn’t recall just its formal characteristics, but also the sensorial and emotional reactions we experienced at the time of contact. The emotion this object generates is linked to the object in the same way its name is. I try to insert new emotional links in other people’s memory.
In the Madonnas project, I use several washing machines. Mounted on each one of these are a photo disk and a cone segmented by mirrors. We see the portrait of a woman waiting and this image becomes animated as we approach it. A sonorous litany produced by the machines accompanies an affirmation repeated by these portraits of women, just like the everyday acts that are repeated thousands of times over to ensure a family’s needs are met.
Madonnas similarly evokes the waste waters of everyday life, which flow away and disappear, as well as maternal waters, the broken waters erased by a hidden existence. This project is also intended as a hymn to all the mothers of the world.
—Diane Landry
Diane Landry
Diane Landry lives and works in Québec City. Since 1987, her works have travelled widely across Canada and in major cities in the USA, Mexico, Argentina, many European countries, Australia and China. Her works have been discussed in numerous publications and recognized by important awards in Québec as well as in the United States. She is the first recipient of the prestigious Giverny Capital Prize, a distinction awarded to a visual artist from Québec. She has been an artist in residence in many centres in Canada, the USA, France, Italy and Argentina. She has also completed a six-month stay in the Studio du Québec in New York, sponsored by the Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec.
Artist Profile