Folklore (2015)
Émilie F. Grenier utilise des matériaux ordinaires pour créer des objets de luxe ou, comme dans Folklore, reproduit des objets simples dans des matériaux luxueux, dans le but d’interpeler notre façon d’attribuer une valeur aux choses. L’objet qu’elle a créé fait référence à une fable dans laquelle une créature magique transforme de la paille en or. L’artiste évoque ainsi une question fondamentale : les matériaux ont-ils une valeur intrinsèque ou leur valeur repose-t-elle plutôt sur les histoires qu’ils nous racontent ou que nous nous racontons ?
Émilie F. Grenier a obtenu une maîtrise en Textiles du futur du Central Saint Martins College of Arts and Design, à Londres. Son projet, Disquiet Luxurians, a été exposé au Victoria & Albert Museum, au London Design Festival et à la Dutch Design Week. L’artiste s’est mérité la bourse Phyllis-Lambert Design Montréal 2014. Elle vit à Montréal.
Émilie F. Grenier contrasts handmade and industrial modes of working ― using ordinary materials to create luxurious objects or, as in Folklore, rendering humble objects in luxurious materials ― to challenge how we attribute value to things. Folklore is inspired by the tale of Rumpelstiltskin, in which a magical creature spins straw into gold to save a young queen from death in exchange for her first-born child. Here, a small, decorative spinning wheel takes centre stage as an alchemic object that asks: which has more value, a spinning wheel made of wood that works or one, made of world’s most coveted materials, that doesn’t work? Do materials have intrinsic value or does their value lie in how we transform them and by the stories we (they) tell?
Designer of narrative objects and experiences Émilie F. Grenier received a master’s degree in Textile Futures from London’s prestigious Central Saint Martins College of Arts and Design. Her graduating project, Disquiet Luxurians, was selected at the 2013 MOST Salone in Milan by the curator, renowned British designer Tom Dixon, and went on to be exhibited at Victoria & Albert Museum, London Design Festival, Dutch Design Week and London’s Protein Gallery. She has recently collaborated on projects as part of interaction design studio Daily tous les jours, including In the Mouth at Centre Phi (Montreal) and La marche du vent, a commemorative path for Lac-Mégantic. Grenier is the 2014 recipient of the Phyllis Lambert Design Montréal award.