Lot
19
Sanatorium Prévost, c. 1908 (I)
Cast glass, sand, 2021
57 x 72 x 6 cm
Estimate
$3 200
Sanatorium Prévost, c. 1908, titled after the eponymous historic building situated in Montreal, comes from a body of work made from samplings of different architectures associated to the 19th Century hygienist wave. This sculpture is the result of a process of imprint transfers through various materials: clay, plaster, sand, and glass. The bumps and residues lodged in the mass refer to the time devoted to formation of the sculpture, and the wear that time has asserted on the building scarifies the surface of the piece.
Biographical note
Alexia Laferté Coutu (b. 1990) lives in Montréal. She has had two solo exhibitions in Montreal, at the Galerie de l’UQAM (2018) and Occurrence (2022). She has also shown at DOOSAN in Seoul and at Unit 1 in London. Laferté Coutu is a graduate of Concordia University (2014) and the Université du Québec à Montréal (2019). Her works are in private collections in Canada and South Korea.
Associating materials such as glass, copper, and clay with a repertoire of moulding actions, Laferté Coutu deals with the language of sculpture in her practice. By pressing on materials applied to the surface of historic buildings, she produces an imprint of the space that is situated between the body and architecture. In making this capture, she tends, paradoxically, to relinquish what is given. Inviting us to reconstruct a world through the sense of touch, her work with material troubles any smooth vision of the heritage of buildings accepted as historic.