Clothilde Allen

My practice is a bit like a rhizome, it goes in all directions. In my artistic compositions, I start from a formal or metaphorical element. The works I create turn into a new work, there is a will of continuity between them, whether it is in terms of theme or idea. There are things that are sometimes so obvious that you don't see them anymore. Like my art practice, which follows me into the mundane moments of life, it is in these ideas that I find inspiration: everyday objects, a fake diamond given to me by my mother, a piece of fabric reminiscent of marriage, a place whose history has been erased, weeds; fragments of history. I find beauty in these elements of my daily life or my wanderings by staging them. My works are like worlds that are attached to my presence or, perhaps, more to my absence.

My projects are all residues of history, a poetic look at my environment. Through my encounter with mulberry paper, a light, semi-transparent and malleable medium, I discovered an interest in materiality. I am interested in the composition of paper fibres, i.e. plants, a love that has been with me for a long time. As a child, I spent summers watching my mother garden. One thing led to another and my artistic production gradually turned to plants. Through my work as a gardener, my sensitivity to light and landscape compositions became more and more refined. The presence of blue in my work announces my interest in the old cyanotype printing process. I am inspired by the herbariums of Anna Atkins, a pioneer of photography. A reflection has opened up on the ecological practices of art.

Born in Montreal, Clothilde Allen holds a Bachelor's degree in Photography from Concordia University and a DEP in Horticulture from the Montreal Botanical Garden. The artist is interested in liminal spaces, the intimate, the public and mixed media practices. Allen has projected visual effects at the Agora des sciences de l'Uqàm in a performance setting with Collectif 1h715 (2019), she exhibited at the VAV Gallery (2018), at Livart (2018), at the Maison de la culture Mont-Royal (2017), at Bellastock festival d'architecture éphémère (2014), later collaborated with Distroboto in 2016, and was also published in LonelyPlanet magazine in April 2012.