Myriam Jacob-Allard: Maman(s)

February 28 – March 29, 2014
Opening on Friday February 28, 5:30pm

Project Description

Myriam Jacob-Allard favours an interdisciplinary approach, anchored in her own relationship to Quebec’s country and western culture. In this exhibition, she explores the idealized notion of the Mother, giving free reign to all its contradictions, in a space where the ordinary and the spectacular converge.

Maman(s) includes a video projection and an installation of backlit panels. In the video Maman, ne t’en fais pas (Mommy, don’t worry) the artist performs the country song of the same title (Mary King, 1978), her voice alternating between that of mother and child. Through the use of understated staging and restrained visual effects, Jacob-Allard invites viewers to reappraise the song, creating fresh perspectives and novel interpretations, without destroying the integrity of the original.

In order to develop the backlit panels, Jacob-Allard cast her eye on the perceptions that Quebecois girls and women have of their mothers. Having conducted a series of interviews and exchanges from which she collected short phrases, Jacob-Allard presents these as an improvised accumulation of handmade panels, which suggest multiple readings through an orchestration of flickering lights.

In the small gallery, the artist presents the video diptych Soldat Lebrun : devenir et être le héros (soldat Lebrun: becoming and being the hero), in which she personifies a popular masculine figure of country-western Québécois culture of 1940-1970.

Interpretive resources provided by the artist

-Marie King’s album Maman, ne t’en fais pas (1978), as well as the rest of her music.

–Soldat Lebrun and the album Le petit Noël canadien / Le plus joli pays du monde (1964) by Roland Lebrun and his family.

-The handmade lit-up signs used in country western culture, such as Oscar Thiffault’s in the documentary Ah! Ouigne in hin in! directed by Serge Guigère (1988).

-Québecois country western festivals, such as Mets ton chapeau et viens à Dolbeau! in Dolbeau-Mistassini.

– Destination ragou : une histoire de la musique populaire au Québec by Richard Baillargeon and Christian Côté, Triptyque (1991).

– Un pépin de pomme sur un poêle à bois by Patrice Desbiens, Éditions Prise de parole (2011).