Julie Robert
Sculpture and Ceramics
My work gives form to what ordinarily remains silent, examining the enduring traces of trials and how they reshape the body, guide behaviours, and transform our relationship to the world. Nature serves as a laboratory for observing adaptation and resilience, from roots breaking through asphalt to camouflaged insects blending into leaves and bark. These observations inform a sculptural language that renders memory and the traces embedded in matter tangible.
Materials from domestic architecture become analogies for self-reconstruction: the self-healing surface of Corten, the conductivity of brass, and the porosity of concrete serve as metaphors for the human condition. Repurposed and combined with heterogeneous materials, they convey complex interactions, revealing tension, precarious equilibria, and relationships of presence and absence. Repetition with subtle variation expresses memory and the imprint of transformation. Arranged in dialogue, these forms create a sensitive space where fragility, resilience, and the imperceptible forces shaping experience become palpable, linking body, matter, and space through a sculptural language that gives voice to the silent and makes the invisible perceptible.
Julie Robert, laureate of multiple distinctions, is pursuing a Master’s in Sculpture and Ceramics at Concordia University, supported by two Concordia Merit Scholarships. She won a major public art competition commemorating Canada’s most significant rail tragedy, unanimously selected by a jury chaired by Danièle Archambault, former Director of Collections at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts. She has also realized a public artwork for the City of Candiac and contributed to a temporary installation for the REM under Quebec’s 1% policy. Rooted in minimalism, her work reveals the traces of adversity and transformation, inviting a tactile encounter with memory and material. Her work has been exhibited at Fonderie Darling, Art Mûr, CIRCA, and Articule, and is included in public and private collections.
