Cooke-Sasseville

Cooke-Sasseville is a contemporary artistic duo created in Québec City in 2000 by Jean-François Cooke (born 1974, in Chicoutimi, QC) and Pierre Sasseville (born 1978, in Quebec City, QC). Their main mediums are sculpture and installations.

Cooke-Sasseville
NationalityCanadian
Known forpublic art, sculpture, installations
Websitehttps://cooke-sasseville.com/

Biography

Well-known in the Québec art scene, this critically acclaimed duo has participated in major exhibitions, events and residencies in Québec, Mexico and Europe. With past successes including participations in important group shows such as the first Québec Triennial (Nothing is Lost, Nothing is Created, Everything is Transformed, Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal, 2008),[1] as well as the 2010 instalment of Manif d’art, the Québec City biennial (curated by the editor in chief of the award-winning international contemporary art magazine Art Papers, Sylvie Fortin).[2] Through irony and absurdity, they deal with various subjects such as religion, sexuality, politics or the art world.[3]

Artwork

Artistic process

Cooke-Sasseville have experimented with various materials including, aluminum, bronze, stainless steel, concrete, electrostatic paint, chemical anchoring and lighting systems. The elements composing their diverse works belong to the common and mundane, easily identifiable by the viewer. Animals, especially deer, are a common sight in their work. For their public pieces, they have worked in collaboration with project management teams, architects, landscape architects and engineers, sometimes even hiring a project manager to assist them with communication and logistics aspects. When talking about their approach, Anne-Marie Bouchard, Curator of modern art at the Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec, says:

"Cooke-Sasseville demonstrate a continuous engagement with more accessible codes of Western culture. While at times playing the game of beautifying and decorating the architectural landscape, the public artworks of Cooke-Sasseville nevertheless aim to showcase the structural character of public institutions. Combining humour and popular imagery, Cooke-Sasseville’s works stand as true testimony to art’s capacity to interact with different spheres of urban life."[4]

Public art

CIRCULATION, 2015: This two-part sculpture is located at the Grandview Heights Aquatic Centre. Pipes, inspired by the ones of the pool, are painted red and blue to represent bloodflow. On the west side of the Centre, a fawn is drinking from a faucet attached to the pipes. On the northern side, several water-like deers emerge from other pipes, implying that the sculptures are connecting somewhere under the building. These elements reflect the Aquatic Centre's roles as both a place of leisure and competition, the fawn symbolizing youth and play, while the deer symbolizing adulthood and sport. Their imaginary link implies that work and play are both components of a healthy lifestyle.[5]

SUIVRE SON COURS, 2017: A lead pencil is attached by zip-tie to a dandelion, potentially representing education acting as a tutor for a growing flower.

LA RENCONTRE, 2017: Probably one of their most well-known sculpture, these two stags facing each other evoke themes of balance, reflection, confrontation, and nordicity.[6] Installed in front on Place Jean-Béliveau, right in front of Centre Videotron, the pair engages once again with the location's purpose, merely the encounter with oneself, the encounter with others, the face-to-face, the search for balance experienced in a busy and festive environment.

LES GARDIENS, 2018: The human eye is intimately linked to the lighthouse in popular imagery since together they suggest the paradoxical idea of seeing and being seen. Installed on a huge colourful steel pipe that seems to come out of the ground, this gigantic eyeball adorned with a sailor's hat turns on itself. It is thus having a panoramic view of the surrounding environment.[7]

MIGRATION, 2018: Through a set of scales and shapes, this sculptural installation connects two emblematic symbols of Canada: the goose and the wheat sheaf. Geese live throughout the territory and symbolize community life, strength of the group, and migration. As for the sheaf of wheat, it illustrates the importance of agriculture in the economic and social development of the country.[8]

BATTRE LE SENTIER, 2021: Installed at Zoo sauvage de Saint-Félicien, the artwork depicts colorful deer defying gravity on a metal pole, a call back to the zoo's surrounding fauna and flora.

Name[9] Year Technique Dimensions
ALLÉE SIMPLE 2006 274 X 244 X 1219 cm
AU PIED LA TÊTE 2006 274 X 660 X 1900 cm
LE NOUVEAU MONDE 2006 Popcorn 457 X 920 X 1829 cm
LE PETIT GÂTEAU D'OR 2010 Gold, silver, diamonds, emeralds, garnets, rhodolites, rubies, topazes, amethysts, sapphires 7 X 6 X 6 cm
L'ASCENSION 2014 122 X 183 X 274 cm
LONGUE PORTÉE 2017 Bronze and stainless steel 18 X 18 X 31 cm
LA TRAVERSÉE 2018 Vinyl, wood, 22 carats gold 153 X 97 X 60 cm
LA PONTE 2018

Exhibitions

References
  1. "La Triennale québécoise 2008". MAC Montréal (in French). Retrieved 2021-09-28.
  2. "Manif d'art 5 - Manif d'Art" (in French). Retrieved 2021-09-28.
  3. Ducharme, André (2012-05-23). "Cooke-Sasseville, agents provocateurs". L’actualité (in Canadian French). Retrieved 2021-09-28.
  4. Bouchard, Anne-Marie (2012). De Cooke-Sasseville à aujourd'hui. Art Mûr. ISBN 978-2-923243-05-4.
  5. ICI.Radio-Canada.ca, Zone Arts-. "Circulation , un hommage au cycle de la vie". Radio-Canada.ca (in Canadian French). Retrieved 2021-09-29.
  6. "LES MÉRITES D'ARCHITECTURE - LAURÉAT 2018". www.ville.quebec.qc.ca. Archived from the original on 2021-09-29. Retrieved 2021-09-29.
  7. ICI.Radio-Canada.ca, Zone Arts-. "Les Gardiens, une oeuvre surprenante de Cooke-Sasseville". Radio-Canada.ca (in Canadian French). Retrieved 2021-09-28.
  8. "Art in Public Places: Jean-François Cooke & Pierre Sasseville - Migration". stalbert.ca. Retrieved 2021-09-28.
  9. "Art – cooke-sasseville". Retrieved 2021-09-29.
  10. ArTbord 2002. Inter N° 84, p. 69-70 Text: Éric Fortin
  11. La mutation des utopies-Changing utopias. Espace N° 63, p. 20-21 Text: Cooke-Sasseville
  12. Faire œuvre utile-Les kits de manifestation de Folie|Culture. Esse N° 54 à 59, p. 26-27 Text: Patrice Loubier
  13. Bonheur et simulacres. Catalogue de la deuxième Manifestation Internationale d'Art de Québec p.86-87
  14. Bonheur et simulacres. Inter N° 86, p. 28-29 Text: Nathalie Côté
  15. Le mur des lamentations (ou le comptoir des plaintes). Inter N° 86, p. 26-27 Text: Christine Martel
  16. Le bonheur est dans le pré ou les héros sont fatigués. ETC N° 68, p. 5-6-7 Text: Nicolas Mavrikakis
  17. C'est arrivé près de chez vous. L'art actuel à Québec. Exhibition catalog, p. 41-42
  18. ÇA N’ARRIVE PAS QU’AUX AUTRES. Vie des arts N° 213, hiver 2008/2009 Text: Mélissa Landry
  19. Livraison numéro 9: Faire comme si tout allait bien. Publication Skol printemps 2008 p.128-142
  20. Culture pour tous: 10 ans des journées de la culture. Event catalog Les convertibles p.10 and 21
  21. Québec Gold. Exposition catalog p. 26-27
  22. Rien ne se perd, rien ne se crée, tout se transforme. Triennale québécoise Catalog 2008 p. 76
  23. Virer analogue-Réflexion sur l'art de Cooke-Sasseville. ETC N° 90, p. 19-23 Text: Anne-Marie Bouchard
  24. Cooke-Sasseville:Si j'avais su…. Opuscule de l'exposition, Text: Sylvette Babin
  25. Cooke-Sasseville : Recette en or-Gladen recipe. Esse N° 69, p.32 à 36 Texte:Marie-Ève Charron
  26. Cooke-Sasseville. Border Crossings N° 115, p. 151-152 Text: Michael Rattray
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.