One Another is a two-part sculpture created for the vitrine and the lobby of YYZ Artists’ Outlet. What choice could be more obvious – and apparently meaningless – than to place a storefront mannequin in a vitrine? And what does that object become when transferred from the usual storefront window to the vitrine of an art gallery?
Stphanie Chabot’s deviant version of the mannequin deals with issues that are inherent to the familiar object: the manufacturing of better bodies, the morbid desire related to self-duplication, the strange force of the uncanny. In One Another, these issues expand and exceed themselves creating delirious new roles and perspectives for the large-scale doll.
PhotoCredit: Allan Kosmajac
Documentation
Essay
The false prophecies of the false idols in the flesh by Stphanie Bertrand
Greetings! Welcome! hails the over-eager head on a stick perched in the entranceway, tooth-grinned, immobile. Please come right in! Ironically, while this description might otherwise be read as a sarcastic chick lit account of the proverbial skinny shop-girl, it literally portrays Montreal-based artist Stphanie Chabot's intervention for the YYZ vitrine.
Artist Bios
STPHANIE CHABOT is a multi disciplinary artist that works primarily in painting, sculpture and installation. She received her Masters Degree from York University in 2008. Chabot’s work has been shown in many Canadian artist run centers including La Centrale Gallery Powerhouse and Clark Gallery in Montral. Her work has also been presented in the United States, Spain (Sala Riekalde, Bilbao), England (Sassoon Gallery, London) and in Australia (H-Block Gallery, Brisbane). She is a member of the curatorial collective L’Araigne, and has been involved at La Centrale Gallery Powerhouse as both a member of the selection committee (2008- 2011), and the interim artistic coordinator (2010). Chabot currently lives and works in Montral.
The artist gratefully acknowledges the support of the Canada Council for the Arts.
Special thanks to Pierre Terzian, Yam Lau, Kristi Ropoleski, and Nomi McComber.
Stephanie Chabot: One Another, 2011. Photo credit: Allan Kosmajac