Montréal-born Gilles Larivière is a sculptor with a number of public art projects in Québec to his credit. Active since the 1970s, he created La quête du savoir for Bibliothèque Paul-O.-Trépanier in Granby in 1985. Two of his artworks, Équilibre fragile and Nature, culture et matières premières, produced in 1990, are on display in Sherbrooke.
Artwork description
Installed in the centre of a grassy area in Parc Alexis-Nihon, the artwork is representative “of the double vocation of Ville Saint-Laurent,” both industrial centre and living environment. The sculpture is composed of four assembled elements whose overall form is a pyramid. An opening at the centre of the work, like a doorway, allows people to pass from one side to the other. The doorway is topped by a triangular element whose base is cut into steps. At the top of the pyramid is a composition made of aluminum featuring silhouettes of skyscrapers and mountains. The top of the pyramid and the silhouettes of skyscrapers are painted bright blue.
According to the artist, the work “takes up the biblical myth of Noah’s ark, which becomes, in its contemporary version, a space ship carrying a portion of Earth.” The artwork highlights the cohabitation of nature and urbanization, and it evokes a temple celebrating culture and human genius.