Montréal-born Agnès Dumouchel holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees in visual arts from Concordia University. She divides her time between her art practice and teaching visual arts at the secondary, college, and university levels. She has also taken part in cultural mediation projects, including Mon jardin – Ma rive, a series of 33 paintings of which two thirds were made by children in Lachine Borough and the other third by her. In 2008, the series was included in the exhibition La beauté du monde, which presented recent works by Dumouchel at the Pavillon de l’Entrepôt.
Artwork description
Midway between nature and culture, the artwork is organically integrated into the outdoor site of the Musée de Lachine. The sculpture seems related to a shelter. The circular base is composed of terraced terra cotta bricks and has a low opening that allows visitors to enter the interior of the work. Inside, the wall has a honeycomb motif and is topped by a conical roof formed of a forged-iron structure on which the artist has encouraged plants to climb. Completely open in winter, covered with foliage in summer, the top of the structure is transformed with the seasons.
The title of the artwork, Albarello, refers to the jars used by sixteenth-century Italian apothecaries. The sculpture borrows the shapes of these jars and expands their dimensions to create a sort of architecture in which a stroller can find refuge. The human body, site of multiple transformations and of circulation of fluids, is placed in relation to the function of this container. In addition, the honeycomb shape of the inner room is inspired by a cross section of the small intestine, the function of which is to chemically transform and absorb foods. Although the artwork has a number of architectural connotations, its central theme is life.