Lacrimosa, “days of tears,” draws on the memory of the First World War and the traces it left, in collective history as well as in family stories.
Across its four series (Lacrimosa, Hope, Vimy and Peace), the exhibition traces a movement from the pain of remembrance toward a form of solace. Ink and acrylic are layered like strata of memory, between the familiar and the unknown, between ordeal and regained peace. More than a historical commemoration, Lacrimosa is a meditation on what is passed down to us by those who came before us – and on the fragility of what seems, on the surface, unchangeable.
Through these works, the project evokes absence, mourning and the fragility of lives upended by war.
This exhibition was presented at the Université du Québec à Rimouski, the Ottawa Public Library, the Bibliothèque multiculturelle de Laval and the Bibliothèque Claude-Henri Grignon in Longueuil.
Ink and acrylic on paper — 54H × 44W cm (framed), 2015
Lacrimosa
Hope
Vimy
Peace
A Family History
At the heart of this reflection on memory and disappearance there is also a family story. This photograph of my grandfather and my father, taken after the First World War, bears witness to an intimate memory that joins collective history. It places Lacrimosa within a history that is at once personal and universal, where the traces of the past continue to resonate in the present.
My grandfather, William Wesley Keeler, who served in Britain and France with the 224th Forestry Battalion, and my father, Ernest Keeler. Photo taken in Brockville, Ontario.
Shattered Memories
Born from a reflection begun with Lacrimosa – 4, Shattered Memories transposes the fragile traces of memory into mosaic. Fragments of marble and slate scatter, intersect and recompose, like memories that, despite time and absence, continue to leave their mark.
Solitary
Solitary evokes the silent experience of isolation, that inner space where presence in the world grows more fragile. The tesserae, assembled in a dense, luminous material, give form to a solitude that is both intimate and universal.
The Grey Hour
Inspired by Ozias Leduc’s L’Heure mauve, The Grey Hour is part of a reflection on cultural heritage and transmission. By revisiting in my turn the landscape of Mont Saint-Hilaire, I seek to bring memory, territory and a contemporary gaze into dialogue. This work thus joins the exhibition Lacrimosa in its reflection on memory.
The work was presented at Galerie Jean-Letarte, Boucherville, Quebec.
Photos: Robert Gosselin