Galerie Trois Points, Montreal, Quebec, Canada — Wire mesh couvered with shredded silkde soie broyée — from H. 15 x L. 20 x D.10 cm to H. 40 x L. 55 x D. 15 cm — Boats made of tarlatan and pigmented ciment — L. from 10 to 25 cm — Photographies inkjet printed mounted on aluminium — from H. 10 x L. 20 to H. 48 x L. 71 cm

“Shipwreck: Shattered remains of a boat in the storm.

Almost shipwrecked: Would the disaster be avoided?

As nature shifts, the elements are raging furiously, waves swell up and up and small boats get smaller and smaller. A miniature world in parallel? Presque des naufrages: comme des naufrages?

 What might we discover at a distance? Undoubtedly the minuscule is to be taken seriously. From above and from afar, the artist engages the spectator to situate himself or herself both in front and beyond events: a spectator, his slow and maturing relationship with life, an inhabitant of the world, on a solid ground and faced with unsteady elements while on the threshold of all calamities.

We could comprehend Michelle Héon’s undertaking in this way. The work feeds on the experience of being in this world, here and now, from where always these fringes, this edge, almost at a distance that calls to mind the places, the positions for each of us, in constant displacement and motion. This unfolding of space and time carries us back into the world of fiction and of poetry. The weft of the glistening sea, the hairy sea grass, the overwhelming waves and the small vessels offer many possibilities for narratives.

The light, as in reality, attests to the depths. It makes far away places dance; shadows come forward and from above, all joining with the unleashed galaxies, past and future.

If in the past, Michelle Héon’s vessels have had to do with what one shall call memento mori with the remains, the wreckage and the passing of time while, in this case, her vessels shall evoke the difficult conditions related to men’s existence, yet not renouncing their revival.

Michelle Héon’s shipwrecks do not fall into the fad of the day. Catastrophic they are not. They are rather doubts nestled in the hollow of the night as existence entails, before all, rational thought from an experience of the senses, both artistic and aesthetic.

Wreckage of existence may not be a wreckage after all. Either it will not happen and we remain safe although distraught as a figment of our imagination, or it did happen and survival has been found in the solace of fictional poetry.

Drama? Of course. It happened. It will happen. However, at no time does the artist leave us with a disastrous scenario. Why? Because this is about an artwork and which, indeed, is beautiful.

Interlaced waves, swirls, a chaos of colors are covered with shredded filaments. The glittering and iridescent peau de soie with its reds, blues and greens is both image and reality – sign and blood – of the currents and of the abyss. Michelle Héon seeks to hold on to the marvel, the sight and the sense of sinking.

Her world, fictional and poetic, the wind and the waves, the vessels on borrowed time, the colors and the lights weave their way through floating motifs off the shore.

 When in Michelle Héon’s studio, I also saw, a very touching video presentation, a vessel appears as if seen through a telescope, a small boat bobbing back and forth… a boat as fragile as a butterfly in May.”               

© Sabine Barbé 2010, Paris, France, French text translated by Suzanne Bourbonnais.