Lot
16
IT'S CHERRY
Oil on wood, 2010
109,22 x 133,4 cm
Estimate
$6 000
Bouthillette attempts to demonstrate that all is energy in movement and that nothing is stable and defined. In this piece, the tiger suggests that one must find the courage to explore our inner chaos. Chaos is confusion, the plurality of desires and ideals one clings to and the gulf between these and reality. To feel reassured is at the root of the arbitrary understanding of the mind.
Biographical note
Born in 1963, Sylvain Bouthillette lives and works in Montreal. He is a multidisciplinary artist, whose work moves between music, dance, installation, painting and photography. Whatever the medium, his works tend to demonstrate that the ridiculous, the impermanent, confusion, instability, ambiguity, uncertainty, and embarrassment are all forms of liberation if we stop believing that life is stable and definable. Through his work, which is as much a mystic quest as an aesthetic pursuit, he attempts to reconcile spiritual values with the intellectualism of critical discourse. Bouthillette has shown his work across Canada, the US and Europe, among others, at Optica, Clint Roenisch Gallery in Toronto, the Mendel Art Gallery in Saskatoon, the Front Store gallery in Basel, Saint Mary's University Art Gallery in Halifax, L’Œil de poisson in Quebec City, the Néon gallery in Lyon, and the Musée d’art contemporain in Montreal. His works are part of collections of the Banque Nationale, the Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec, Giverny Capital, the Musée d’art contemporain in Montreal, the Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec and of several private collections.