Isabelle Bernier Sasowa’nikonhen/ Oublie ça

Opening on Friday, September 11, at 5 pm

One of the “themes” which emerges from Isabelle Bernier’s recent installations is that of refoulement (repression into the unconscious of one’s feelings or ideas). The desire to forget the unbearable, to negate or to contain it, seems central to the pieces—whether it be an individual’ failed love relationships, or—on a more collective level—political conflicts whose sources and violence are not acknowledged. The translations (into Mohawk, English, Cree and Arabic) that are integral parts of the works evoke both the difficulty to communicate and the possibility to do so. At time , language reaches such a degree of banality that it becomes a mere frame for the pace between the line—a frame or a barbed wire. The viewer is invited to interpret the subtext.