The kinetic installation Poussières de langage has its foundation in the metaphor of the “river bed”. A woven porcelain surface, made of seven thousand small pieces, is inlaid in the floor as if it were part of the architecture (geology) of the building. The basement of the gallery is a substratum for the installation where geological activities happen: wooden shapes attached to motors’ shafts are activated by a microcontroller that makes the porcelain surface move in subtle ways at random intervals. The low humming of the motors in motion is combined with the sound of the small porcelain pieces clicking together (and potentially breaking due to erosion). These sounds become a metaphor for the transformation that occurs in a “river bed” over time, demonstrating how all the movements coming from inside and outside a river contribute to its transformation. The rocks contained in a river are constantly being polished and eroded by these perpetual movements until they become clay or sand. In this installation, the sediment produced by erosion is the dust—poussière—from which my soft “porcelain river” is made: the bed is potentially the river.
Porcelain, glaze, stainless steel wire coated with nylon, polyester thread, motors, ball bearings, circuit board, microcontroller, poplar, steel structure, felt, 28 x 35 x 99 inches.
Photo credit : Étienne Dionne
Photo credit : Jenna Edwards