Annik
St-Arnaud
Annik St-Arnaud is an artist based in Tiohtiá:ke / Mooniyang / Montreal. Their interdisciplinary practice lies at the intersection of textile processes, biodesign and culinary arts. From a speculative perspective, they explore our flexibility and capacity for transition by creating materialities that lie in between reality and utopia. Sustainability, slowness, care, resistance and the valorization of natural materials are also central elements around which they center their research.
Artist Statement
My research is the collective
It’s an investigation into possible speculative futures as a way to understand the collapse of rigid systems and a transition towards more flexible models.
Magic is salt
I create hybrid realities that exist at the limit between our perceived physical world and utopia.
We follow and we break
If we crave connection, should we not follow our desires? If the loneliness of our surroundings is swallowing us, should we not break away?
Both an end and a beginning
We eat, we consume, we taste, we savor, we swallow, we nourish our bodies, we digest until there is nothing left and everything repeats; as a cycle.
A thirst for both water and words
Anchored by set guidelines and methodology, I move away from and seek to subvert established hierarchies that dominate and set values. If there is nothing to possess, I cannot be owned.
Methods of resistance
When knowledge cannot keep us safe, let us seek gestures that facilitate connections both to others, to place and to being present. Let us sleep, let us rest, labor makes no sense when building our own identities.
Navigating blurred lines
Constantly processing, work happens everywhere because time is multidirectional. There is no here nor there. There is always a choice even when there is none.
My research is the escape