CROSSING LINES, ERASING HISTORIES: AN AUTOPSY OF A BODY-LANDSCAPE

In her artistic practice, Aïda Vosoughi explores the concept of landscape. For several years, she has been addressing the border as one of the agents that transforms it, particularly in relation to migratory movements. The body of work presented here was created following two residencies, one at the École d’art du Calaisis in France and the other with Adélard in Frelighsburg, Quebec. She observed the situation created by the tightening the border between France and England and made contact with migrants, among others. Returning to Quebec, she created a series of works to bear witness to their often-forgotten stories, beginning with the white cliffs of Dover. Because the Channel crossing between Calais and Dover is heavily monitored and militarized, those in exile must take other, longer, and more dangerous routes, thus depriving them of access to this impressive landscape. By layering paint altered by sandblasting, the artist painted the cliffs on ten panels made of reclaimed pallet wood. From one panel to the next, she makes the image increasingly abstract, with a few pink traces that persist, as if this colour refuses to be erased. —A painting on tarpaulin enters into dialogue with this series. Like wood, it is a precarious material omnipresent in the makeshift shelters of people on the move. Created using a stencil, a wire mesh appears on the surface. The pictorial quality is finely worked. At first glance, one might think that the tarpaulin is merely the support, before realizing that the colour is reconstituted through the meticulous application of numerous layers of paint. The representation behind the mesh remains ambiguous. Is it the sea? Or the sky? —For her floor moulding installation, she drew inspiration from the context of landscape transformation near the American border in the 19th century. During the transformation of the land to farmland, settlers burned the trees in the forests, giving rise to the potash industry. This mineral was extracted by boiling the ashes before being used, among other things, in the preparation of soap. Besides the land clearers, this toxic transformation process was carried out by marginalized groups. For her soap molds, the artist adopted this method using wood gathered near the border. A symbol of cleansing and erasure, the artist draws a connection to her experience in Calais, perceiving that hygiene is instrumentalized and can be used as a weapon. Through a search for experimental techniques, notably by involving her body with molding of her face or shoes—the very ones she wore during her residencies—she wanted to connect the materiality of her work with its subject matter, which addresses the issues of immigration and the acceptance of the other from a metaphorical perspective.

—JOANNIE BOULAIS