Julie René de Cotret
A Material Mélange of Comfort, Style and Violence.

February 28 – April 6, 2008 

A Material Mélange of Comfort, Style and Violence; is a physical reflection of our man made world. This exhibition is a sculptural installation, featuring a re-constructed environment and offering the viewer a re-interpretative perspective of our World.

Julie René de Cotret, uses process to inform her work conceptually. She utilises common objects, images and techniques to reference everyday life. The process which these “things” are subjected to, is one of material and conceptual deconstruction.

To deconstruct an object into material, to create a new form, while re-using the materials and the intrinsic nature of the original object.

Unmaking couches, for example, into their original material form of; fabric, wood, springs, staples, foam and screws… The artist then uses these materials to create “upholstered piles”. The function of the couch has been undermined.  The properties of the couch (the couch ness), as well as the techniques of upholstery, have been carried over into the pile. The form of the pile and its common associations are also components of the piece. Evidence of this process (of un-making and re-making) is an important part of the finished product, as it is explicit of a history.

The process is a marker in the history of the object. This practice offers the viewer a more encompassing understanding of the final object, in the sense that the object’s physical state implies its entire history, from start to finish, like a form of record.

The artist views this work as a way to gain new insight into the nature of human conventions. This process of subversion allows the object to become more than it is in reality.

Artist Biography

Julie René de Cotret was born in Montreal. She studied Fine arts at John Abbott College, in Ste-Anne-de-Bellevue, Montreal. She received her B.F.A. from the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design in Halifax in 2004, and she spent one year making art in the United States before returning to Canada in 2005.

Her studios are located in Kitchener, where she has recently opened a seasonal new multi-media gallery called the School Bus Gallery. Julie is Chair of the Gallery Committee at the Elora Centre for the Arts. She is a member of the Public Art Working Group for the City of Kitchener, and recently became a member of Ed Video’s Board of Directors.