La pêche blanche

Lise Beaudry’s La pêche blanche (Ice Fishing or literally, White Fishing) invites us on a trip, back and forth between a familiar rural and family milieu and her apartness from this environment she left behind to live in Toronto.

In her more recent trips to Earlton, Lise Beaudry has gone out to search for ice fishing huts stored away for the summer. When she discovers them—or rediscovers them, it’s all the same—a feeling of elation moves her. These excursions rekindle the memory of past adventures with her father as they went out scouting for new spots to do some ice fishing.

A series of photos documents her latest discoveries in a crisp and clear study of form. In spite of the greenery, warm light and vibrant colours of summer, the huts still seem cold. In spite of our close-up, head on view of these structures, the huts seem to recede before us. Our gaze cannot penetrate their closed facades, their locked doors, their drawn curtains. Entering is out of the question.

But for the artist, these structures set aside for the summer awake a fervent wish… She will be back this winter, she will go fishing and she will swap fishing stories.

In her second series of photos, the artist brings us back while ice fishing season is in full swing. The scene is a vast expanse of white dotted with small colourful and inviting structures; we can almost hear the stories they contain. In her Holga camera’s imprecise views, these icy landscapes seem warm and inviting. The huts themselves in all their improvised variety speak of those who come to them. In the company of the artist, we visitors enter into the intimacy of a community for a time, a day of ice fishing.

Lise Beaudry completes her exhibit by building her own ice fishing hut inside the gallery’s white-walled space. Time is suspended for the visitor who is drawn inside. Documentary style video images of the surrounding huts, the lake, and the infinite expanse of snow can be seen through the window.

In La pêche blanche, Lise Beaudry explores notions of family, community, convention, local culture and memory, in search of what is hidden in familiarity.