2225 Noiseux Street, Mont-Saint-Hilaire, QC
In the shadow of Mont Saint-Hilaire, I create and maintain a garden that serves as a model for my paintings. The event on September 23 will introduce visitors to the first series of paintings inspired directly by this living laboratory.
My initial methodology for this experimental horticultural project was borrowed from cartography. The basic structure of the garden takes up, on a small scale, the characteristic elements of the St-Hilaire region: its river, its mountain and its fields. But the contours of the map were soon challenged by the forces of nature itself, as well as by my very personal relationship with amateur gardening. This project titled “Topographical Garden” cultivates surprising tensions between nature and culture. All this time spent patiently observing the countryside leads me to believe that, more than ever, our relationship with the environment needs to be repainted.
I’d like to take this opportunity to extend my warmest thanks to Guylaine Duvernay, who so generously welcomed me on her land. I would also like to thank the Canada Council for the Arts for its financial contribution to this project.
— David Lafrance, St-Hilaire, 2023
