In Surreal Collages, Julie Liger-Belair Explores Home, Interiority, and Dreamland — Colossal
Artistic craftsmanship
#assembly #collage #home #Julie Liger-Belair #mixed media #paper
« The Plane of Nowhere ». All images © Julia Liger-Belair, shared with permission
“Home can be a symbol of comfort and refuge from the harsh world. A home, in other words, can be a reflection of everything we hold dear,” says the Toronto-based artist Julie Liger-Belair, whose mixed-media collages often center around representations of the house. « But a home can also be a place of fear, oppression and helplessness, » she adds. « I’m really obsessed with this duality. »
Liger-Belair enriches found photographs, historical portraits, botanicals and patterned papers with a range of drawing media. During the pandemic, when quarantines have strengthened the boundaries between indoor spaces and the outside world, she has begun to consider what it means to do or show something « inside ». This has led to the incorporation of motifs related to living spaces and enigmatic inhabitants. Bodies merge with architecture, botanicals blossom from torsos and limbs, and otherworldly landscapes stretch into the distance.
“Lost with Dolls”
Drawing on an interest in dreams and surreal worlds, Liger-Belair taps into the realm of the unfamiliar. Each composition is grounded in a sense of wonder, examining what we perceive as fact or fiction. She says:
I think human beings have always been drawn to the realm of the improbable, as it’s such a common theme in books, movies, and artwork from many different cultures and eras in history. I would even say that we can understand science as an attempt to discover or glimpse the improbable hidden or embedded in the real. I’m thinking here of microscopic views of cells or even photographs of distant stars. These strange worlds are tangible and not only found in dreams.
Liger-Belair gravitates towards the accessibility of collage and the infinite potential to imagine, organize and recontextualize new narratives. She often works in series, allowing themes to emerge intuitively. “While the overall storyline may not be entirely obvious in each piece, it’s important to understand that with each piece, I’m telling a story to myself,” she says. « In some ways, developing that narrative is just as important to me, and perhaps more rewarding, than finishing individual pieces. »
Find out more about the artist website AND Instagram.
“Blue Vase”
« Headdress 2 »
« When Two Mountains Meet »
« I am the winter »
« Headdress 4 »
“Sometimes left”
“Beasts of burden”
« Headdress 3 »
#assembly #collage #home #Julie Liger-Belair #mixed media #paper
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