Brenda Garand

Statement

 

 

 

My sculpture uses specific objects and abstract form as a reference to the physical and psychological aspects of the individual. Ideas of aggression and protection, what is hidden and revealed, frailty and strength are conveyed through linear and planar elements made out of wire, fabric, steel, and roofing paper. Over the years, important sources include: human and animal forms, nature, medieval imagery, and extensive visual research done along the banks of the St. Lawrence River in Québec. I incorporate the agrarian and fluvial, combining ideas of a sense of place, my heritage, history and the pressure of time. This is not only the physical pressure of water teeming along narrow banks but also the cultural pressure of merging peoples: French, English and Native American. The work reflects upon the past and present, on lives that are hard, full and moving.