Pamela Banana
- il y a 9 heures
- 2 min de lecture
My artistic practice initially revolves around photography, video, and writing. My work focuses primarily on observing everyday life: I am drawn to mundane scenes, the poetry of the ordinary, spontaneous situations, and working-class neighborhoods. Through imagery, I seek to document the strangeness, absurdity, and sometimes humor of the world around us. I pay particular attention to patterns, colors, and unexpected forms encountered in public spaces—like sorts of accidental sculptures.
Later, I discovered ceramics and working with volume. Through this medium, I can approach the exploration of form, color, and texture in a more sensory way. I initially focused my ceramic practice on abstraction and organic, unreal forms. Little by little, it’s as if a return to what draws me to the image is beginning to take shape. Indeed, figurative elements are starting to appear in my work, and my fascination with everyday life is resurfacing. Through staged scenes, similar to those found in photography, I draw inspiration from everyday life and working-class settings, but also from more socially engaged issues, particularly those related to politics, violence, and the place of women in society.
My work is characterized by a sense of incongruity, humor, and kitsch. I use these elements as tools to create a tension between apparent lightheartedness and more serious subjects. Humor thus becomes a way to attract, to surprise, but also to defuse the heaviness of certain subjects. In this vein, I developed the character of Pamela Banana, my alter ego with kitschy and exaggerated traits, who allows me to reclaim the codes associated with femininity and popular representations.
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La Maison des métiers d'art de Québec is a cultural organization dedicated to contemporary craft practices. Located in the heart of Quebec City, it boasts 25 ceramic, textile and sculpture studios spread over seven floors. Its mandates include training, research and creation, as well as the development and promotion of fine crafts. In partnership with Cégep Limoilou, it offers technical courses for the Diplôme d'études collégiales (DEC) - Techniques de métiers d'art - option céramique, construction textile et sculpture, and enables professional artists to enrich their practices through intensive training or research residencies.
