Transparencies

TRANSPARENCIES

An imaginary conversation between artists Cathy Sisler and lamathilde through the lens of forceful works in their respective body of work.

Identity is shaped, in part, by the gaze (the scrutiny) cast upon beings, objects, things, which surround us. The gaze harbours multiple functions. It enlightens and informs; it may initiate a relationship. It takes on significance when welcomed by the gaze of the other.

Cathy Sisler knows the power of the gaze. She has created an inventory of its intensity and aspect: interested, patient, curious, absent, distracted, indifferent, worried, distant, blind, anonymous… She also knows the devastating impact of one’s gaze on the other and seems to have developed a sixth sense to avoid it or to deflect it, as needed.  

Backwards, created in 1992, is certainly the work of Cathy Sisler that offers the most resistance to the person experiencing it. This video challenges the gaze: the strategy is simple but radical. The artist turns her back to us and reads a text. There is the question of a woman’s back, her back, its resemblance to her father’s back; of the relationship between a man and a woman; of the tenuous thread that binds and separates two individuals; of the difficulty to speak of pain. This naked back becomes the surface to decipher throughout the duration of this monologue, recited with assurance. A visual obstacle, the back occupies most of the screen; forcing the gaze, it resonates and invites listening.

Backwards reveals the breadth of the artist’s performative potential, in its restraint, in its economy of means, in its raw and inescapable efficiency. An opaque and matte presence, this woman’s body asks nothing: it is present.

Le jeu du pendu (Hangman) by lamathilde is an animated work made in 2010, based on a narration written and performed by the artist. The warm, embodied voice of lamathilde establishes a strong link with the person viewing the video. The game in question, Hangman, consists of guessing the letters that make up the secret word. It is usually played by two people, on paper with a pencil and follows a specific order. A ritual appreciated by children, the game combines drawing and words. In this short video, lamathilde invites us to discover two words.

Le jeu du pendu (Hangman) playfully reveals an autobiographical story yet one seriously marked by condensed and elliptical writing. lamathilde videos are often very short, concise, and dense — so much so they provoke a feeling of vertigo. It is an exceptional work on memory that challenges us; the reminiscence of a body and the wounds and loss inflicted.

Eighteen years separate the two works. 

Both Cathy Sisler and lamathilde, each in their own way, propose a narrative with the same intensity and integrity. Between these two artists, between these two women, exists multiple affinities: a confident, multidisciplinary, feminist practice, a privileged space given to the voice, the infiltration of autobiographical elements, the evocation of memories from which a work emerges, the body as a vehicle of difference, of resistance; the vulnerability of self, an approach to trauma through storytelling both unforgiving and placid at the same time, a body that pushes itself to its limit while revealing its fragility. 

Thus, the imaginary conversation between Cathy Sisler and lamathilde through the lens of forceful works in their respective body of work: two videos that touched me when first premiered and still continue to exercise on me their power of thought, of attraction, and of questioning that which constitutes the basis of identity. 


Nicole Gingras
Curator and Author

Author’s notes 
Some passages of this text are taken from my essay published in Cathy Sisler, La Femme Écran/The Reflexive Woman, bilingual monography translated by Susanne de Lotbinière-Harwood, accompanying the eponymous exhibit I curated; a co-edition OBORO, les éditions nicole gingras and Centre d’Art Contemporain de Basse-Normandie (France), published in 1997. 


-- Text Translated by Barbara Ulrich

 

ABOUT THE ARTISTS

lamathilde (aka Mathilde Géromin) lives in Montreal. Active in the artistic community, she has put together an impressive body of videos that project an elegant sobriety and depth articulated with nonchalance. The artist is omnipresent: during the shoot, writing the texts, during the voice-over, creation of the sound track, the editing, yet rarely in front of the camera. Her work looks at identity through gender and sexuality. Her interest in sound was manifested by her becoming a member of the WWKA (Woman With Kitchen Appliances) performance collective from 2004 to 2019 and in creating a radio program from 2002 to 2007.

Cathy Sisler lives in Ontario. A multidisciplinary artist, her videos, drawings, installations, performances, and writings are well received. During the 1990s and at the beginning of 2000, she created different characters: the spinning woman, the staggering woman and the falling woman. The body of her work raises the question of fragility to be further examined through the concept of the double and the marginalized body. A dozen of her videos are distributed by Groupe Intervention Vidéo (Montréal) and Vtape (Toronto). Her work is presented in Canada, Europe, and the United States. CJSisler currently works for Start Me Up Niagara, a homeless shelter, where she helps assist the Art Garage: a place for street people to create, do art, and find self-expression without rules or judgement.

ABOUT THE CURATOR

Curator, author, and researcher, Nicole Gingras develops various dissemination activities on her own and partners with different institutions (museums, galleries, artists’ centers, festivals). Her interest in exploratory practices in film, video, sound art, and kinetic art takes shape through exhibitions, important programmes, singular publications, as well as many conferences in national and international arenas.