j acques Bilodeau’s work is substantial. His furniture and interiors present his material of choice —sheet metal. My first experience of Jacques Bilodeau’s work was his folded sheet metal furniture featured in the media lounge of the Biennale de Montréal 2000. Its minimal aesthetic matched with its comfort made it one of the most engaging pieces of the Biennale. One of his most recent projects, his studio/residence at 925 des Carrières in Montréal, continues to exhibit this distinctive architectonic sensibility. 925 des Carrières both inhabits and extends an existing industrial build- ing sited near an incinerator just north of a swath of railway tracks in mid-town Montréal.The understated exterior, clad partially in sheet metal, announces Bilodeau’s occupation of this marginal, industrial land- scape. On entering, it becomes clear that this is a place of quite repose and imaginative experimentation. Large sheets of metal hover above the concrete floor. This horizontal, blackened, sculptural assemblage is both a work of art and a surface to be occupied — a background for gastronomical delights served from Bilodeau’s fully equipped industrial kitchen. To maintain the studio’s highly edited ambience, large sheet metal sliding doors and free standing partitions screen behind-the-scene gadgetry, including the studio storage area crammed with fragments of industrial machinery and hospital equipment. It is apparent that this designer is a modern day alchemist transforming found materials into evocative creations that defy easy categorisation. An object or surface might be a lighting fixture, a piece of furniture or a fragment of a building. However, and more importantly, it all bears Bilodeau’s spirit of invention matching ‘high’ design with a witty sense of the everyday. Asked how he achieves the subtle lustre on the large horizontal and vertical expanses of sheet metal he replies nonchalantly. One can only imagine the ritualistic applications that give a distilled shine to his weighty creations.
925 des Carrières by Jacques Bilodeau Michael Carroll
b ilodeau’s work is concerned with the representation of emptiness. At the same time, it discloses the relation- ship of conflict that we maintain with such a representation. There is the unmentionable emptiness that dwells in us and desperately urges us to cram our interior environments with objects.
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I ssue 10 2003
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