A Hot Air Balloon at Arts Sutton!
Installation by Martine Galarneau
January 23 – February 28, 2010
Show opening: 2 pm on Saturday, January 23
Guided Tour with the artist: February 13 at 2 pm
Arts Sutton Gallery is proud to announce the official opening of its first show in 2010, Five Minutes in a Balloon by artist Martine Galarneau.
The grace, slowness and quiet of the hot air balloon contrast sharply with the speed, immediacy and chaos of the world around us. In this installation Galarneau offers us a moment of escape from the pace of our daily lives. “Inspired by Michel de Certeau’s The Practice of Everyday Life, I want to bring in the idea of getting the big picture on everything that takes us over, the "grip of the city." Five Minutes in a Balloon is presented as a type of ritual,” she says.
Download the article published in La Voix de l'Est Monday January 25, 2010.
Visitors take a circuit that starts inside the balloon itself; there is no other access to the rest of the installation. The inside of the balloon is a vast, white and sound-deadening space, suggesting detachment and meditation. Visitors then go through an opening in the balloon to reach the rest of the installation, which includes a climb up to a raised basket, an observation point, that only holds one person at a time. Facing away from the balloon, which is continually being inflated, the person in the basket is given an aerial viewpoint of the ceaseless motion of the city. The passenger thus becomes a spectator of the city, but also of his or her own behaviour in a structure where the minutes are counted as they pass.In this installation, Martine Galarneau seeks to create a fictional environment that allows time to think about and reflect upon the frantic pace of our daily lives. The hot air balloon speaks to us of travel, adventure and exploring the unknown, which all attract us and make us uneasy at the same time, but which definitely, for a time, free us from our routines.
Martine Galarneau has a master’s degree in Arts Education from Concordia University and a BFA (creation) from Université du Québec à Montréal. She has worked as a props person for a number of organizations, including the Cirque du Soleil, Cavalia and Télé-Québec. She teaches art in the Fine Arts Department at Cégep Saint-Laurent in Montreal and is a promising young artist.