JEAN-ROBERT DROUILLARD Nous étions humains, 2012

Jean-Robert Drouillard

Jean-Robert Drouillard was born in Gaspé and lives and works in Quebec City. Following studies in literature and creative writing, he turned to sculpture. He graduated from Quebec City’s École-atelier de sculpture in 2000, now known as the Maison des métiers d’art, where he has taught since 2004. In 2002, he and four other artists founded Coop Le Bloc 5, a production studio located in Limoilou. Jean-Robert Drouillard sees his work as being part of a particular sculptural tradition. For him, sculpting large figures by cutting directly into solid wood is a gesture of memory. The characters he creates are staged in poetic narratives, telling silent stories impregnated with the world of fairy tales and fables. Self-representation, which he compares with autofiction in literature, is at the heart of his project, hence his use of family members and himself as models. For this 4^th edition of ORANGE he continues the exploration he began with the project Nous sommes la nature (2010), whose sculptures, incarnations of a fusion of human and animal, echo the concepts family and clan. His new work, entitled Nous étions humains, recounts our instincts and our appetite for the other. It examines with humour and sarcasm questions around the balance of power with respect to survival. As an ensemble, it evokes our animal nature and relationship to nature.