Geneviève Savard’s exhibition at La Petite Mort gallery may show people in masks, but it seems she’s more concerned about what happens when those masks come off.
The young artist from Montreal is making her Ottawa debut at the gallery with oil paintings of masked people. The exhibition will premiere on Nov. 16 and run until Nov. 22.
Savard said she thinks that, because of our constant exposure to violent and frightening images in the media, we’ve become desensitized. She said she uses masks to show how we separate ourselves from the truth.
“Putting a mask means that we hide. We don’t want to admit things that we’ve done. We don’t want to see the reality,” she said.
“Just like an executioner in Middle Ages we don’t want people to know that we’re bad.”
Savard said her inspiration for this project came from Susan Sontag’s essay, “Regarding the Pain of Others.” The essay focuses on war photography: both its power to make the viewer see and the belief that a photograph can never fully convey the reality.
Savard said she believes this is true.
“In the individualistic world we’re living in today, it’s hard to have compassion for someone who’s dying on the other side of the planet,” she said.
“We are all hiding behind a mask to not see the sad reality.”
But there are more to Savard’s images than the mask we use to shield ourselves. She said she also believes the mask represents “a muzzled majority and a lethal minority.”
She started the series in 2010, when she said she became frustrated with this inequality of power.
“I felt that the filthy administrator governed me. I felt there was no justice at all between rich and poor and the gap is growing wider and wider.”
But Savard said she believes movements like Occupy Montreal and the “printemps érable” might bring about a change.
“Finally the majority was awake,” she said.
“The population was taking off their masks of indifference.”
The exhibition will take place at La Petite Mort gallery, which Savard said she chose for a number of reasons. Considering the political nature of her work, she said she believed it should be shown in the capital.
“The last painting of my series ‘Copinage au parlement’ is about federal politics, bribes and manpower,” she said.
But she said chose La Petite Mort for a more specific reason.
“I chose La Petite Mort because the gallery is in a way provocative and insubordinate.”
And that is what Savard said she tries to be: provocative. She said she hopes her series will force the viewer to reflect on their reality.
“I always search for the repulsion versus the attraction emotion,” she said.
“But I would be satisfied if I invoke reflection of any kind. It’s positive when people start to observe and have an idea of their own.”
