Chantal Durand

Chantal Durand likes to think of the body as a stranger with whom one lives—like a bag carried everywhere yet never opened, its contents largely unknown. The body is moist; it has leaks that one attempts to contain. The interior thus becomes a threat—the threat of an inner substance spilling out. Her work draws inspiration from the history of medicine and anatomical representation, reflecting the myriad efforts and tentative steps humans have taken to know, understand, and tame their own bodies. Durand creates soft sculptures—or works evoking softness—that resemble human organs. These objects position the work’s material—what it is made of—as the primary signifier, relegating the symbolism of the form to the background; the form becomes merely the boundary of the material. This approach highlights the materiality of the body while also pointing to the concept of impermanence and the inevitable drift toward decomposition—a descent we cannot halt. Chantal Durand’s objects evoke both fascination and unease, addressing—with humor and sensuality—the body’s failings and our loss of control over it. They are created on a human scale.

Chantal Durand lives and works in Montreal where she graduated from a master in visual arts at Concordia University. Working with sculpture, drawing, printing and installation, she explores with humor and sensuality the relation of uncanniness we maintain with our own body. Her work as been presented at Les Mangeurs, an art event which took place in Saint-Hyacinthe, as well as in galleries, Clark, Circa, L’Oeil de Poisson and in group exhibits in Canada and Sweden.