Emily Rose and Marie Drolet’s new collection is now available
L’atelier de l’Aube is pleased to announce that the latest collection, Illuminated Seasons is now available and on public display for the first time at the Saint John Arts Centre from May 5 to June 30, 2023. This project is their first collaboration with the artist Emily Rose Michaud.
Illuminated Seasons is made up of 28 unique porcelain hexagons, depicting plants local to their home area of Outaouais, Quebec. Each porcelain piece is mounted onto a cherry wooden frame and includes an incorporated lighting system. Pieces are available individually or as sets organized by the 4 seasons.
Michaud and Drolet teamed up and combined installation and porcelain to explore the theme of water protection. The hexagonal structure is commonly used as a visual for the covalent bond of Hydrogen and Oxygen, or water. Naturally, Michaud and Drolet took this symbol, combined it with inspirations from botanical drawings or sacred geometry, and created a wonderful new body of work that emphasises the importance of how we ought to navigate, sync, and respect nature.
Each hexagon also represents a local plant in the Outaouais region. Emily Rose explains, “We intended to distill the essence of the plant and represent it in organic, botanical or sacred geometric forms.”
Production for this collection began in February 2022, meaning this collection has been tended to and cared for a while. Over the past year, the artists met up once a week for a full day in the studio. The process was laborious- drawings were transferred to clay slabs, motifs were meticulously sculpted in bas-relief, and plaster moulds of the bas-reliefs were created allowing for these thin translucent porcelain artworks to take shape.
When asked how this collaboration enhanced the research, Marie reflects saying “What drew me to collaborate with Emily Rose is that we both approach nature as a spiritual being in itself. Our contact with it is closer to animism than to science. We are interested in the spiritual essence of the world.” In turn, Emily Rose states, “This new collection was a co-creative relationship from the beginning. We were inspired by one another's respective expertise. Marie's knowledge and technical skill with ceramics complemented my experience with drawing and sculptural installation.”
This collection combines the delicate materiality of porcelain to echo the fragile state of our natural environment. Technical knowledge and spiritual richness were combined to incorporate their shared appreciation of local flora. The final results are visually, artistically, and technically impressive. Check out the collection today and see how each piece connects towards a coherent whole.
Address: 20 peel Plaza, Saint John NB, Canada
For more information please visit the Saint John Arts Center
This project was possible with the financial contribution of CALQ.
