Lot
6
Soaked
Pigment print on paper, 2020
109 x 80 cm,
2/3
Estimate
$2 250
Soaked is part of Bui’s recent research in which a multitude of fragments are collected and combined before being pressed, boiled, cut, gelatinized, or simply left to spoil. These “cooked still lifes,” as Bui calls them, are images of our own polluted bodies and, by extension, our legacy. Shown in a state of temporary congealment, this series serves as an archive of our excess. While pointing to pollution and contamination, Soaked also attests to the idea of transience, beauty, and the inevitable cycles of decay and rebirth.
Biographical note
Michelle Bui is a Montreal-based artist working in photography and sculpture. Her research lies in the use of material culture as a creative modality in which the combination of synthetic plastics and organic matter becomes vivid scenes that, once photographed, provoke a visceral response. Looking for points of combustion between objects, Bui elicits an array of physical feelings that conjure both pleasurable and confounding sensations, offering a space where sensory identity can unfold.
Recent solo exhibitions include Pool of Plenty, Galerie de l’UQAM, Montreal (2018); Centerfold, Parisian Laundry, Montreal (2019); Plein Soleil, Circa, Montreal (2019); Objects for the Audience, Galerie Rad Hourani, Montreal (2020); Spilled Plenitude, Franz Kaka, Toronto (2020). Her work was included in group shows at Maison de la culture Claude-Léveillée, Montreal; Paul Robeson Galleries—Rutgers University, Newark; Projet Pangée, Montreal; and Vu Photo, Quebec City, and is in art public collections such as Collection d’art de la Ville de Montréal, Equitable Bank, Hydro-Québec, RBC Art Collection, Scotiabank, and TD Bank Art Collection. Bui completed a MA at UQAM and at Beaux-arts de Paris, and a BFA at Concordia University. Upcoming projects include a solo exhibition at Esker Foundation, Calgary, in January 2022.