BIO
Stéphanie Beaulieu is a conceptual artist who lives and works in Montreal. After have worked for more than 10 years in the advertising industry, she completed with distinction her BFA in Studio Arts at Concordia University (Terminated at Newcastle University in England, 2011). Within an installation-based practice, her work proposes a reflexion on the individual role every human being plays in others’ self-definition. Her work has been presented in England, in Mexico, in Yukon, in Toronto as well as several regions of Quebec. She is an active member of several Artist-Run Centers and President of Pied Carré’s Board of Directors.
STATEMENT
Beaulieu’s work questions our individual role in how others define themselves. Within an installation-based practice, she tries to understand human beings behaviours in the way they respond to emotional as much as social needs: anxiety, fear of loneliness, needs of achievement, etc. She believes we can extend those reflexions to the identity of a society or more specifically in the way it is framed by its common value system. From project to project, she abolishes social classes or gender differences in collecting social interactions or anthropological samples such as hairs, belly buttons’ moulds, grass from different neighbourhood’s lawns or infused tea bags. The results of those collections point out the differences within groups of objects, actions and persons that seem homogeneous but also within that same homogeneity the similarities demonstrating a certain normality that makes us feel so good. By observation and comparison we confirm the correctness of our feelings. This inter-reaction helps us to grow intellectually as well as to understand ourselves. This behaviour, at the very basis of public opinion, maintain a social pressure feeling that might be perceive as oppressive and restrictive but is essentially an individual responsibility within a specific community. Themes of support, perseverance, opportunism, similarities despite differences and perception are the heart of her research.
CV
