Sarah Bertrand-Hamel
An Examination of The Fold

Media: Cyanotype and Liquid Light emulsion prints on paper handmade by the artist from various fibers (abaca, cotton, flax, gampi, iris leaves, kozo, mitsumata) and coated or not with different types of gelatin sizing
Size: 24" x 130"

Artist Statement:
My work is about the gaze; an awareness of being that is initiated by the act of looking. Dealing with notions of reproducibility and identity, impermanence and infinity, I attempt to create images that question the concomitance of singular realities with the relationship of equivalence between all that exists. My work is a 

Sixty samples of handmade paper, from various fibers and coated or not with different types of gelatin sizing, are displayed in two rows, on two walls in the corner of the room. Both rows present the same paper samples in the same order, but a different printing method is used: cyanotype for the top row, and Liquid light emulsion for the bottom. A detailed label allows the curious viewer to associate the subtle variations in the prints to the material specificities of the individual sheets. Images are closeups on drapery: a photographic representation, on paper, of a sculptural representation, in stone, of folded cloths. I examine the effect of these transitions, fluid to rigid, three to two-dimensional, and use the fold as a language to express a presence, a movement, the passage of time, a body, or even a landscape.

Biography

Sarah Bertrand-Hamel lives and works in Montreal. She holds a Master in Fine Arts from Concordia University (2014). Curious and attentive to the materials she uses, her research has brought her into making her own paper. Since each sheet is different, each batch has its specificity, and these particularities inspire the subsequent work.

Fascinated by impermanence and singularity, the artist creates images that she repeats and reinterprets, fragments and recomposes. She is interested in transitions and shifts between these images. She traces change, wants to make time visible.

In 2017, she was the first prize winner of the Valcellina Award (Italy) and of the Paper in Particular annual exhibition (United States). Her work has been exhibited in Canada and internationally, recently in Japan where she also studied Japanese papermaking as part of two artist residencies. Her works are featured in public and private collections, including the Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec (Canada) and the Museo national de la cerámica (Mexico).

http://www.sarahbertrandhamel.com/