Artist File
August 22, 2023
Artist Spotlight: Caroline Monnet’s Work Is Inspired By Her Indigenous Heritage
In our Artist File column, art advisor Diana Hamm of WK ART shares the artists that have caught her eye.
Artist Caroline Monnet explores ideas of “the home” and “our land” using industrial materials and techniques inspired by her Indigenous heritage.
The Artist: Caroline Monnet is inspired in equal parts by her Anishinaabe and French heritage. Her multidisciplinary practice explores what it means to have a dual identity — and how to reckon with it. Pulling references from her daily life growing up in Quebec, Caroline creates visually vibrant work that is at once playful and serious.
The Works: Exploring our contemporary relationship to notions such as “the home” and “our land” seen through both an Anishinaabe and Western lens, Caroline highlights the contrast between these two viewpoints. She grew up in Aylmer, Que., and her parents built and flipped houses on the side. As such, she was surrounded by construction and building materials. These have now become the defining characteristic of her own practice. Using elements such as Styrofoam insulation, polyethylene and multicolour sandpaper as her mediums, Caroline creates brightly coloured, abstract pieces that hold layers of meaning.
Superstrong (2021)
Take Superstrong, for example. The base of blue Styrofoam features Caroline’s applied mark making. Conflating a modernist, abstract language with notions of Anishinaabe culture reflected in the geometric designs, the artist is referencing her experience among these industrial products while also pointing to the housing crisis amongst First Nation communities, where overcrowding and poor air quality are dire issues threatening health and quality of life. “I started to think about housing materials and habitat, and reflected on ideas around displacement and the introduction to life on the reserve,” says Caroline. “I wanted to transform industrial materials into poetic and organic shapes, where every surface becomes a potential for ornament, as a way to instil pride. For years, the housing situation in Indigenous communities has remained grievously unchanged. Local councils are excluded from decision-making, and the result is generic housing that isn’t adapted to the environment and that bears no resemblance to traditional dwellings.” The piece addresses these major issues with conceptual and visual richness.
Framing the Bones (2022)
Caroline’s Framing the Bones employs a method involving embroidery on polyethylene. She was initially inspired by the Anishinaabe art form of birchbark biting. “The technique is fascinating; it allows for the creation of intricate designs that use geometry and symmetry,” she says. For her patterns, she uses software to produce geometric shapes that never repeat. In bright colors, such as the orange seen on construction pylons or workers’ safety vests, this piece has a rhythmic nature. “The patterns start to resemble city maps or QR codes as much as they remain true to the weaving and beading that inspire them,” says Caroline. “The more I make them, the more they evolve, acting as microchips that transfer knowledge across generations, offering a glimpse back and a path forward.”
Vessel for Knowledge (2022)
Caroline’s practice is multifaceted, ranging from film to installation to sculpture to wall-based works. In her last exhibition in France, she made a large icosahedron sculpture out of Douglas fir entitled Vessel for Knowledge. Crucially, Douglas fir is not native to France — the sculpture examines the different ways in which Western and Anishinaabe cultures treat land. France plants a lot of the trees that are used there for lumber. Caroline is exploring this means of resource extraction and the industrialization of forests. The sculpture’s design is inspired by the philosophy that humans are not owners of land, simply custodians of it. While Western culture uses geometry as a way to map out land and, thus, possess it, Caroline is using geometry to arrive at a greater understanding of the meaning of land itself. Overall, these works are thought-provoking, political and beautifully made, resulting in pieces that are enjoyable to look at, and that also open dialogues of differing perspectives which, to me, defines a successful work of art.
Shimmers of Trust (2021) by Caroline Monnet in the home of art adviser Kim Edmonds.
Caroline’s work is in major collections such as the National Gallery of Canada, Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal, Banff Centre for the Arts, Art Gallery of Ontario and Musée des beaux-arts de Montréal. She has also won numerous awards for both her films and visual art. Her work starts at $2,300.
Caroline recently had a solo exhibition at the Art Gallery of Burlington, and at Le Centre International d’Art et du Paysage de l’île de Vassivière in France. She has an exhibition coming up at Arsenal Contemporary Art in New York. She’s represented by Blouin Division in Montreal.
Diana Hamm of WK ART is a Toronto-based art adviser. A graduate of Sotheby’s Institute of Art in London, U.K., Diana focuses on contemporary art and discovering emerging artists. She also advises private clients on acquisitions and collection building. Find out more at wkart.ca.
Adam Moco (Diana's portrait)/Nick Iwanyshyn (Caroline’s portrait)/courtesy of Art Gallery of Burlington, Blouin Division and the artist (Superstrong, Framing the Bones)/Le Centre International d’Art et du Paysage de l’île de Vassivière (Vessel for Knowledge)/Kim Edmonds (Shimmers of Trust)
House & Home