I'm a multidisciplinary visual artist that uses textiles as a base for my conceptual creations: installations, performances and videos. I wish to underline the parallel between written texts and fibers that weave, because both of them follow a horizontal path, line after line (row by row), a message that completes the composition. According to me, weaved pieces, sewn and knitted describe a continuous calligraphy that tells a story with a beginning, a middle and an end. This type of manual repetition present in my production, creates a wider meaning that touches universal subjects.
Here are a few examples of my work: Farandole - an installation initiated by Alliance française de Winnipeg, presented in Lyon, France in 2020. Jamais, je ne t’oublierai - an installation with performance - one of ten selections for the Creative Placemaking Challenge, a Winnipeg Arts Council initiative in 2014, Tons de rouge - a continuous knitted project, manifested in Western Canada: Winnipeg, Saskatoon and Victoria. Mère terre, taire - a video produced in collaboration with Denis Chamberland, presented at the Women's Film Festival in Vancouver, 2013. D’une fenêtre à l’autre - an installation presented at the Biennale Internationale du Lin à Portneuf, Québec in 2017.
Colette Balcaen, Winnipeg (Bac en Beaux-arts, Université du Manitoba) est une artiste franco-manitobaine. Elle intègre les textiles, le dessin, la sculpture, les techniques mixtes et la performance. Les tissues et les fils sont à la base de ses expressions personnelles de son héritage culturel. Elle crée des représentations physiques de narrations cousues d’un fil à l’autre. Présentement, elle explore les techniques de feutrage. Ses œuvres ont fait parties des expositions de groupes et solos à La Maison des artistes visuels francophones, Art Gallery of Southwestern Manitoba, à la Galerie du Centre culturel franco-manitobain, Women’s Film Festival à Vancouver, au Textile Museum à Toronto, Creative Placemaking Challenge du district West Exchange à Winnipeg, à la Biennale internationale du lin de Portneuf à Québec et World of Threads à Oakville, Ontario.
Participante choisie pour trois évènements annuels des expositions, Wearable Art Awards, à Port Moody, CB. Son œuvre Story Keeper, lui a mérité un prix en 2015. Farandole, son installation pour le projet de l’Alliance française de Manitoba au sujet de la culture Métisse, fût présentée en février, 2020, à l’INSA (Galerie au Centre des humanités) à Lyon, France.
Colette Balcaen, Winnipeg (BFA, University of Manitoba) is a Franco-Manitoban artist. She integrates textiles, drawing, sculpture, mixed media and performance. Using fabrics as a base to express her heritage, she creates physical representations of narratives stitched thread by thread. She is currently exploring felting techniques. She has participated in group and solo exhibitions at La Maison des artistes visuels francophones, Art Gallery of Southwestern Manitoba, La Galérie du Centre culturel franco-manitobain, Women’s Film Festival in Vancouver, Canada Textile Museum in Toronto, Creative Placemaking Challenge in the West Exchange District in Winnipeg, Biennale international du Lin de Portneuf In Quebec and World of Threads in Oakville, Ontario.
For three years, her work was juried into Port Moody Wearable Art Awards exhibitions in BC. She received an award for her work, Story Keeper in 2015. Farandole, her installation in the Alliance française de Manitoba project about Métis culture, was presented in February 2020 at INSA (Galérie au Centre des humanités), Lyon, France.