Les Intérieurs-Artist's Statement

Véritable spectatrice du monde, Karine Giboulo puise sa principale voie d’inspiration dans son environnement quotidien ou dans les bulletins d’actualité. Son regard lucide et critique l’amène à construire un monde imaginaire dans lequel l’innocence et la fantaisie côtoient la dérision et l’engagement social. Ces deux niveaux de lecture déstabilisent le spectateur qui prend alors pleinement conscience de l’ampleur de la condition humaine.

Karine Giboulo s’est d’abord exprimée à travers la peinture en donnant à ses toiles de grands formats un caractère très narratif construit selon le modèle des bandes dessinées. Très vite, elle a ressenti le besoin d’étendre son champ créatif et a commencé à réaliser des installations reprenant les thématiques de ses toiles. Loin d’être de simples reproductions tridimensionnelles, ses installations interagissent avec elles, les complètent pour animer le message qu’ils délivrent.Soucieuse de toucher le plus grand nombre, Karine franchit une nouvelle étape en utilisant des symboles clé de notre société pour nous renvoyer l’image de ses incohérences, de ses absurdités et de ses dysfonctionnements. Après avoir détourné la fonction de l’usine en inventant l’usine à bulles et ses fameuses « bulles de vie » chargées de nous délivrer des messages à caractère politique ou social, Karine, avec « Les intérieurs » utilise maintenant la ville afin de l’utiliser comme miroir de la société et de nous confronter à certains de ses aspects : la guerre, la politique, le monde des affaires, la consommation, l’environnement, la solitude…

Fidèle à elle-même, Karine joue avec les contrastes : l’humour, la gaieté des couleurs, l’esthétique enfantine font face à la gravité voir au tragique de certaines scènes. Elle renverse l’ordre des choses pour mieux les dénoncer. Ainsi, l’on peut voir un ours qui fume aller faire valoir ses droits au Parlement, ou, des hommes d’affaires occidentaux et leurs enfants qui travaillent dans une manufacture abusive pendant que le patron Chinois joue au golf dans son bureau. Ainsi, le spectateur passe du rire à la réflexion et vice-versa, une manière habile de l’interpeller sur les incohérences de notre société.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

The Glendon Gallery presents “Les Intérieurs”

September 18 to October 18, 2007

Opening Reception: TUESDAY SEPTEMBER 18, 6-8 pm

Toronto, September 1, 2007- Glendon Gallery is pleased to launch its 2007-2008 season by presenting Montréal artist Karine Giboulo in an exhibition entitled Les intérieurs, running from September 18 to October 18. Marc Audette is the curator of this bold artwork. The artist will attend the Opening Reception on Tuesday, September 18, from 6-8 pm, and she will also give a talk on Wednesday, September 19, at noon.

A true observer of the world, Karine Giboulo draws her inspiration largely from her day-to-day environment as well as from current events. Her imaginary world, which combines innocence and flights of fancy with derision and social commitment, stems from her critical yet lucid gaze.  Karine Giboulo first expressed herself through painting by giving her large canvases a very narrative style, drawing on the comic book genre. She soon felt the need to expand her creativity and began to create art installations based on the themes of her paintings. Far from being simple three-dimensional reproductions, these installations interact with her paintings, complementing them in order to bring to life their common message. 

In order to create her interiors, Karine Giboulo organises, collects and structures "bubbles" from previous lives. These message bubbles made from Plexiglas depict scenes from daily life, and deliver a political or social message. Karine holds a mirror up to different aspects of society such as: war, politics, business, consumerism, the environment, scientific advances, and solitude …Within this context, these interiors become buildings made up of many levels, where each space is compartmentalized and encloses scenes from these ‘life’ bubbles. A new means of communication is articulated, with the relationship between these narrative scenes leading us to confront, contrast, and reconsider them in order to relate them to one another. The isolated messages found on every level are to be decoded, brought into relation with one another and interpreted as a whole. Thus, these interiors bring together and structure thoughts and ideas which have until now been isolated and protected in bubbles. 

While the spectator may find the same characters in these bubbles of interior lives, they are inscribed in different universes. Until now, the thoughts trapped within these life bubbles have been limited to a spherical universe. The geometrical harshness found in these interiors conflicts with the earlier vision of these bubbles in light, round, floating suspension. Criticism is always just as cutting, always more bitter, harsh and cruel, but it is always real. In these interiors, the context of the messages takes on harder edges, like the reflection of a restrictive society, like the metaphor of thoughts that have been walled in and imprisoned.  

Each figurine is created from modelling clay, then fired, painted and glued. In the style of the writings of Jean de la Fontaine, these scenes read like fables, where the animal, a true parody and caricature of human beings, reveals the various facets of our behaviours with humour and derision. The spectator will move from laughter to reflection and vice-versa, a novel way of calling into question the incoherence and absurdities of our society. Bubbles and interiors are part of the most recent corpus of this young emerging artist presented at Glendon Gallery.

Biographical note

Karine Giboulo lives and works in Montréal and is currently completing a bachelor’s degree in art history at the Univer-sité de Montréal. She has participated in a number of group exhibitions, including From the Collection of the Artist, at Montréal’s Saidye Bronfman Centre in 2006, and Le ludique et l’art engagé, shown at both the Maison de la culture Villeray, Montréal, in 2005, and at the Château des Ducs de Duras, in the Aquitaine region of France, also in 2005. She has had solo exhibitions at the White Water Gallery, North Bay, Ontario, in 2006; at Tohu, Montréal, in 2006; and at Halifax’s Eye Level Gallery in 2007. In 2008, the artist will be exhibiting her work at a number of galleries, including Artcite in Windsor, Ontario. Karine Giboulo is represented by [sas] Gallery in Montréal.

Acknowledgements 

The artist thanks [sas] Gallery for their support. The Glendon Gallery would like to thank its media partners: the French newspapers L'Express and le Métropolitain,  Radio-Canada TV and radio CJBC 860 AM, la Première Chaîne, ClicToronto also Quebec Government Toronto Office.

 Gallery hours:  Tuesday to Friday: 12 - 3 pm / Saturday: 1 - 4 pm.

Information: 416-487-6721 / gallery@glendon.yorku.ca  / www.glendon.yorku.ca/gallery. Guided Tours: The Glendon Gallery offers guided tours on

Tuesdays from 12 - 1 pm, by reservation.

– 30 –

Information: Martine Rheault, Artistic Coordinator, 416-487-6859, artculture@glendon.yorku.ca.