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We have worked in the selection, management, production, delivery and installation of seven artworks that amplify the design of the space. Two of them are custom-made installations, including Olivier Charland‘s participative mural Fragments de mémoire which is a composition of several boxes and forms, creating multiple encounters.
Thaïla Khampo is a Montreal illustrator who loves patterns, mystery, beautiful stories, naive art, caustic humour, simplicity and images that tell stories. Khampo has also created a work specific to this space, which echoes the vocation of the place which is a space of sharing, privacy, and work, and it also evokes the presence of greenery.
Through these Q&As with the artists, we invite you to discover the artistic process behind these works specifically commissioned by MASSIVart for Ivanhoé Cambridge.
Can you tell us more about your general artistic practice?
I have a hybrid practise between design and art, where the two disciplines mix and feed off each other. My work is full of vivacity, expressed by bright colours and graphic forms. There is an important mix between digital and analogue, blurring the lines between the real and the digital to keep a human and emotional aspect but with a polished visual look that could be similar to 3D or digital drawing.
What are your inspirations?
I love museums and galleries, I often plan my trips around that. I am inspired by a lot of artists from the past to the present but I think what inspires me the most is in the everyday. Long walks, dinners with friends, family, etc. It’s often in the randomness of small things that ideas come or images take shape.
For the project at PVM, how did your creative process unfold? What story did you want to create?
I wanted to represent the effervescence and the diversity of the city of Montreal through boxes, like a comic strip, which tells short stories. In spite of the abstraction, one can feel some elements of life but especially the strength and the energy which emerges from it. The eight interactive boxes bring this idea further with a mural that is constantly changing, depending on the mood of the tenants. It can be given warmer or cooler colours, and evolve over time.
How do you think the integration of artworks can support the architectural vision of a project?
It is a must! Architecture needs life to make sense. The addition of artworks brings a human and living touch to a space. It completes and enhances the meaning of a place, bringing a new point of view.
Can you tell us more about your general artistic practice?
It is very simple. I try to be honest and authentic in the visual representation no matter what project I am working on.
What are your inspirations?
They are quite diverse. It can be a scene from a movie, a photo, an ordinary moment in everyday life, an artist’s work that I like, etc. What is important is that these things connect me emotionally.
For the project at PVM, how did your creative process unfold?
By the same method I use in all my projects. It starts with the research and then comes the sketches. Then the final version.
For the project at PVM, it was important to be attentive to the interior designs of the place and its vocation so that I could create a mural that immerses itself in an organic way. I also had to take into account Oliver Charland’s mural to avoid a dissonance and create a link with his work. Either through the colour or the patterns he used.
What story did you want to create?
Since the space is visually busy, a minimalist approach was needed to avoid a cacophony. The mural is semi-abstract, so it doesn’t so much tell a story as it creates an atmosphere and emotion. It echoes the vocation of the place which is a space of sharing, privacy, and work, and it also evokes the presence of greenery.
How do you think the integration of artworks can support the architectural vision of a project?
The integration of artworks must take into account the sensitivity, vocation and vision of the place. I think that the work must be in harmony with its space either in an organic way or in contrast with it.
