centre d'artistes.artist run centre
Exhibition from February 13 to March 22, 2009
Opening : Friday February 13 at 7pm
Performance «St-Valentine Special » : Saturday February 14 at 3pm
Performance and discussion with the artist : Sunday March 8 at 3pm, as part of the International Day of Women
Text by Skye Maule-O'Brien click here
When the sublime singer that was Maria Callas died of heart failure, it seemed to certain of her admirers to be the ultimate insult: an ordinarydeath, devoid of mystery and without scandal, a death not worthy of a woman of her grandeur. Some tried to romanticise Callas’ death with speculations of suicide in an attempt to lend an air of mystery to that most natural and banal of phenomena: death. In response to this desire for glorification, the installation The Antechamber of Death is a spectacular and scintillating homage that is inspired by, and embellishes upon, the circumstances surrounding Maria Callas’ death. An imaginary diva named Elizabetha Von Gorgenstein has passed away in the antichamber of her château in the suburbs of Paris. Like Callas, she had withdrawn from the outside world after a series of painful liaisons, living in isolation but for her chauffeur, gardener, dressmaker, hairdresser... and her maid – a muscular young man who goes by the name of “Doyle.” Also like Callas, the diva left a handwritten note in her bedside journal; it contained the first lines of the aria “Suicidio” from Ponchielli’s La Gioconda. Murder, suicide, or natural death? Raising questions of a feminist nature, this installation dissects the circumstances in which the corpse – bathed in an atmosphere of strange perfection – was found. Welcome to The Antechamber of Death, where blood, grace, and drama go hand in hand.
Céline B. La Terreur is an engaged interdisciplinary artist who is particularly drawn to performance, video, and figurative painting. Carrying the title of Master in Arts from the Université du Québec à Montréal, she also studied “Women and the Fine Arts” at Concordia University. Having been fascinated by multiple personality syndrome from an early age, she claims to be at one and the same time a rigorous drawer, Maria Callas, and the lead singer of an obscure electro band. Céline B. La Terreur is represented by Galerie Joyce Yahouda in Montreal.
Photo: Alana Riley