Pierre Fournier was born in Sherbrooke in 1957. He graduated with a degree in plastic arts before completing a Bachelor’s and then a Master’s in the same field at the Université du Québec à Montréal – the artist still lives and works in the island metropolis. He then received training in computer graphics at Cégep de Maisonneuve a little later in his career.
Though Pierre Fournier is well renown for his public art works and his prowess in integrating art to architecture (almost ten projects since 1993), he also does short-scale sculpture. His sculptures are often kinetic (Mouvements factices, Occurrence, 1989) and sonorous (Machines sensibles, Optica, 1986). As they are created for galleries, his sculptures have elements of interactive art and ”technological art” and sometimes even include drawing, photography and performance. Since 1983, his pieces were regularly showcased in special exhibitions in galleries, museums and for contemporary art events primarily in Montreal but also across Canada (Sherbrooke, Victoriaville, Hull and Ottawa) and several times in France. He often participated in collective exhibitions, which allowed him to showcase his work across Canada and elsewhere (France, Japan).
Pierre Fournier’s sculptural work is based on the elaboration of lurid structures – a crisscross of scattered shapes. The artist uses repetition and organic imagery in an almost scientific fashion: the movement that binds these techniques makes the viewer question the very relation between art and technology, between our inner and outer selves. The objects in his art question the perception of reality by how they are arranged by structural variations.
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Artwork description
The artwork *La fluidité des gestes* consists of three anodized aluminum sculptures installed at the main entrance to the Dorval Sports and Aquatic Complex. The installation punctuates visitors’ paths and serves as a playful landmark within the space.
The three objects are derived from geometric drawings that explore the solid and void aspects of the material. The laser-cut pieces are assembled and strung along an axis, supported by aluminum brackets. Through their arrangement, these geometric figures invite us to see a structure that is complex in its organization yet simple in its appearance. This organization of multiple elements—which, by arranging themselves, form another structure—is somewhat akin to the principle governing the matter around us: plants, minerals, and so on. This project builds upon my formal research into the mathematical object known as the fractal figure.
These structures evoke the world of possibilities and improvisation, with their variations featuring multiple compositions and configurations—culminating in “star-like, molecular, floral, and other forms”—in infinite natural kinetic motion. They also draw on a rational technical logic in their composition but, above all, on a playful aspect in the final design (balancing the physical and the mastery of the human hand with the uncontrolled randomness of movements governed by the laws of nature).
People are invited to wander among the sculptures and, in their own small way, participate in this interplay of perceptions of the world around us. Through the lightness of the forms, I invite viewers to see my passion for what structures our universe—a passion that far transcends our perception of the reality of matter. I also seek to prompt a shift in thinking by introducing an element of uncertainty regarding what seems solid and unchanging to us.