Andréanne Godin
Installation view, Volta NY, 2018. Photo: courtesy of the artist & Galerie Nicolas Robert
Installation view, Volta NY, 2018. Photos: courtesy of the artist & Galerie Nicolas Robert
Untitled III, from the series On Our Way To The Border, 2017. Photo: Trigonix, courtesy of the artist & Galerie Nicolas Robert
Untitled IV, from the series On Our Way To The Border, 2018. Photo: Trigonix, courtesy of the artist & Galerie Nicolas Robert
Untitled IX, from the series On Our Way To The Border, 2018. Photo: courtesy of the artist & Galerie Nicolas Robert
Untitled VIII, from the series On Our Way To The Border, 2018. Photo: courtesy of the artist & Galerie Nicolas Robert
Through drawing, Andréanne Godin translates moments that mark her daily life. Captured with the spontaneity of a mental sketch, these instants are given form through the methodical rubbing of pigment or powdered graphite on paper. Recollected moments and their representation come together as a kind of metaphor for memory. Reality fuels the imagination, and its pictorial interpretation summons a troubling déjà vu effect. In fact, Godin’s drawings reveal the universality of intimate memories.
This combination of sensitivities relies on the paper’s sculptural arrangement within the space. Positioned to favour the viewer’s gaze, the drawings form a path through a collective visual culture. Godin explores the architectural possibilities of drawing in ways that contradict or reinforce what is depicted. The brittleness of the medium is reflected in the object’s apparent fragility and engages the viewer in a distinct way. Occupying a space between contemplation and perambulation, the image of ephemerality paradoxically suspends the march of time.
Godin’s near-ritualistic technique grew out of her meticulous and highly focused process. Her temporal and physical investment in the work echoes the slow settling of elements on which memories are built. Drawing can intercept details that elude direct experience, but that are altered, erased, or revealed by memory. Her series On Our Way To The Border depicts anonymous sites, fleeting landscapes, and other everyday textures, like the hazy sketches of the artist’s own history. This play on representation evokes the lifecycle of these images, from their initial assessment by Godin to their surrender in the eyes of the viewer.
The drawings are linked by their rather monochromatic palette. Godin’s choice of single colours, whether real or simulated through a subtle mix of pigments, gives her renditions a soothing effect. Their rich and varied nuances whisper the images into being. Here, as in her more abstract images, vegetation, skies, and spaces assert their otherness. The volatility of the medium contributes to this uncertainty, and a sudden realization strikes: memory is fallible. Minimalist drawing, in its own way, outlines the discreet gravity of our temporary existence.
Translated from the French by Jo-Anne Balcaen
