Marier la terre, les feuilles et la forêt, exhibition by Joseph Branco and Marie Côté, the Sutton arts gallery, from April 8 to May 2021. Curator Robert Lebeau
Arts Sutton presents a duo of artists: a ceramicist-sculptor and an artist-painter.
When Marie Côté discovers a place, a territory, she is not satisfied with the surface or the landscape. She goes under the surface, seeks the earth, the depth of the place, its specificity, it takes hold of it and makes it live differently. Like a witch, she listens to the land she makes speak and sing. Thus, she discovers the roots of places and their inhabitants. This is what brought her up north, to Inukjuak in Nunavik and Dawson City in the Yukon, west to Surrey in British Columbia and very close to here in Saint-Hyacinthe and Sainte-Rosalie on farms to discover virgin or specific lands. The ceramicist-sculptor brings to life and sing the earth which for us seems inert and not very talkative.
When Joseph Branco discovers a place, a territory, he sees less the landscape and the perspective, he rather focuses on the details that would make the still life. He sees less of the forest and more of the leaves and branches. He wants to immobilize time like the photographer and thus capture the essence of the place, the object, the material.
When the two artists meet to create together, the clay in Marie Côté's hands becomes sculpture, still life. It is a rare moment and little shown. The exhibition presented by Arts Sutton is the privileged opportunity to see the works born from these meetings as well as recent works by Côté and Branco.
Robert Lebeau, curator