Interview with Sarah Bertrand-Hamel, who makes paper, an art

To understand how artists from here shape the material to extract their vision from the world, you have to meet them. Similarly, Highlight is a series of portraits that appear every end of the month. Moreover, Incursions in the world of creators who work their works in an unusual way, behind cultural news. Furthermore,

Its “459 grams of hemp” gave 48 sheets of different quantities. Therefore, They were cooked for two hours, in two cauldrons. Nevertheless, The Dutch battery, an operation which aims to make the dough homogeneous, took between 40 and 55 minutes. However, Data of this type. Nevertheless, Sarah Bertrand-Hamel notes them preciously so as not to forget anything about her experiments to design paper.

“These are fiber samples, prepared differently. Therefore, I keep samples of everything. Therefore, I tried different plants, ”she said, turning interview sarah bertrand-hamel, who makes the pages of one of her satchels. Similarly, “This is the distaff, that, an iris leaf, that, kenaf, a plant that looks like hemp. Moreover, This is compost. Therefore, »»

Since her master’s studies in visual arts at Concordia University, Sarah Bertrand-Hamel has been making paper. Meanwhile, His paper. For example, It has become his expertise, his art. Similarly, And it was from her home, in a designer accommodation in the Mont-Royal plateau, which she operates. In addition, It is there that she welcomes us by starting, as it should be, with a tour of the owner.

The apartment, of which she is a tenant, is three -quarters thought as a workplace. In addition, Even the bath is sometimes used (for leafs of large formats). Similarly, The front piece is reserved for the latest stages of the creation of works: a drawing table. Furthermore, a sewing machine is there. Therefore, interview sarah bertrand-hamel, who makes The darker environment, serves as a desk: the presence of a computer does not deceive it. Similarly, A third is the real laboratory of this artist who says she is a handyman. Table of pigments, basin, press, dryer, etc., occupy space.

“I am very handy, I try business. If I pour the dough in a certain way. if I put more or less water, says the one who is also a professor of Concordia University. I started teaching [vers 2012] And I spent years just testing business, doing research on fibers, techniques. What does it give when you do filigranes, when you put two papers. I have two or three other notebooks like these. »»

Interview sarah bertrand-hamel. who makes – Interview sarah bertrand-hamel, who makes

From photo to sewing drawing

Daughter of Luthier, and of luthière, Sarah Bertrand-Hamel did not want to make a career in arts. “It’s not long since I say” ok, I’m interview sarah bertrand-hamel, who makes an artist “,” she says. However, she had something in her that led her to that. It was through the photography that she got there. that she signed up for the baccalaureate at Laval University, where she spent “a lot of time” in the dark room. However, it was the drawing and sewing that pushed her towards the Joyce Yahouda gallery, where she exhibited from 2008.

“I had a certain dissatisfaction with photo paper. I in Triples To see the images appear. but the physical result was not there, comments the one who is not only a handyman, but also passionate. I started drawing photorealistic. The magic of the dark room was missing, but I had the choice of paper. I in Triples to reproduce images, to transform them. »»

Cutting paper leaves also comes from this desire to move away from smooth photographs. “I created faceted surfaces, which grabbed interview sarah bertrand-hamel, who makes light differently. My first exhibition is sewn papers. It was still going further. Modify my paper support, work it to make it more alive, more textured. »»

Couture naturally made it lead to fibers and. thereafter, to collect plants, to dissect them, to get passionate about, to become an expert. His dining room-kitchen, where the interview takes place, is, without surprise, very green, we notice the presence of multiple pots. These do not push its material. “It’s not just any plant [qu’on peut utiliser]not all parties. Iris and distaff, yes, for their leaves with parallel grooves. Asclepiad is excellent. I pick up from time to time, when I am motivated. I pay attention to harvesting it when the season is over, when there are no more butterflies, ”she says.

The quality of a fiber, she adds by email, manifests itself in its size. “The longer they are, the more the interview sarah bertrand-hamel, who makes potential has the potential to be solid, resistant to tears,” she writes. The extraction process being long, Sarah Bertrand-Hamel buys already prepared fibers. It is doing so, although the satisfaction of doing it yourself remains an attraction.

Interview sarah bertrand-hamel. who makes – Interview sarah bertrand-hamel, who makes

Without conceptual program

Since the closure of the Joyce Yahouda gallery in 2017 and due to more important education responsibilities, Sarah Bertrand-Hamel has been discreet. Admittedly, those who frequent the Pierrefonds library are entitled to a work by the artist, his only on public art. A whole work: The thickness of the paper (2019) consists of four immense sections that tell the story of paper. book.

His recent association with a gallery established near the Atwater market, Tian Contemporary, however brought him back to exhibit. The solo may come in 2026. but for the moment, it is among a group that one can see from it a new interview sarah bertrand-hamel, who makes work-the exhibition In flow is playing until mid-July.

For the occasion, she recovered, or out of the wardrobe, literally, a work sewn over ten years ago. She says without embarrassment: “I found her ugly. She tried the first time to modify it according to the saving technique. with wax, but the result was also “ugly”.

“I wanted to make this work disappear without making it disappear. There is a lot of this in my work, ”she says. By finding it. she was once again retarded, putting wax and testing multiple impressions, with folds, torsion, “with more or less wax, more or less paper, this more or less dry …” “My failed work has become a matrix. »»

Without preconceived concept, without a fashionable program in mind, Sarah Bertrand-Hamel creates her works in an experimental way. It is the textures. the forms, the light and the time to make them that interview sarah bertrand-hamel, who makes dictate his appreciation from one case to another. The transmission of knowledge also encourages him to seek, to push again. In the fall, with the support of the city of Montreal, one of its student groups will collect invasive leaves. “We will recover them to make paper. ” says the one who will delve with joy in this long process of extraction of fibers.

At the end, it is the “magic” behind the manufacture of paper that seduces it. A step that she does not delegate. “I have been doing paper for twelve years and I still have the same trip. When I go out a leaf from the dryer, wow! I adore. It is the same magic as in the dark room, ”says the photographer who has become a papermaker.

Interview sarah bertrand-hamel, who makes

To watch in video