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Canadian Art

Rewind: Jérôme Fortin

Musée d’art de Joliette

Working in the tradition of Pop Art in Quebec (begun in the 1960s by Pierre Ayot), Montreal-based artist Jérôme Fortin reinvents the manufactured objects and commercialized artifacts that are the raw material of his work. But unlike pure Pop artists, Fortin assembles large numbers of the same item (corks, beer caps, matches, keys, plastic bottles and, most recently, crossword books and other publications) and recreates them as new forms with the status of jewels or ornamental murals.

At 31, Fortin has become a central figure in Quebec art. His installations have been selected for significant exhibitions such as “La Biennale de Montréal 1998,” “Growth & Risk Québec New York” (2001) and “Officina America” in Bologna, Italy (2002). Still, it was almost surprising that the Musée d’art de Joliette gave him what amounted to a kind of retrospective.

Curated by its director, France Gascon, “Ici et Là” gathered together 15 works that Fortin has executed since 1995. The Bagatelle series from 2000 and the latest, New York (2001), were exemplary. In them rectangular tables offered visitors an amazing diversity of objects: cans, matchboxes and other things that industries produce.

The raison d’être of the undefined circular shapes and metallic pieces on display is their materiality, as well as their connection with daily life. But Fortin’s efforts are not only based on the transformation of banal objects into superb compositions. He converts the factory production that is the provenance of his materials into a new context of manual processing, something related with handcraft. As a collector himself, the artist points to people’s desires for possession. His articles can be seen as jewels (the shapes remind one of necklaces or earrings) or as archaeological samples, part of a cabinet of curiosities.

The most recent series suggests that Fortin no longer pursues the horizontal presentation format that made his reputation. Pieces such as Solitude (origami made from novels and comic strips) and Seascape (mural circles originating in a large assortment of coloured plastic bottles) become more decorative than ever. In Seascape, fabric-softener and oil containers have been cut into fine, long strips that give the work a minimalist aspect. Using bottles found on the shore of the Saint Lawrence River during a residence at the Est nord est artists’ centre in Saint-Jean-Port-Joli, Fortin’s almost monochrome mural metaphorically and ironically recalls the watercourse that washed them ashore.

Spring 2003

This article was first published online on October 26, 2003.

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