Nathalie Bujold

What would it look like if abstract paintings came alive, if their seemingly fixed lines, curves and contours began to move, weaving together the fabric of entirely new compositions? These questions are at the heart of pioneering Quebec video artist Nathalie Bujold’s newest work, Pixels, Petit Point and Monument, commissioned by the MMFA for the third edition of its Digital Canvas project.

A “videographic weaving” between artisanship and digital art

From September 11, 2023, to March 31, 2024, a new work will light up the facade of the MMFA’s Michal and Renata Hornstein Pavilion every night from sunset until 11 p.m. Created using a video synthesizer (one of the earliest instruments used in live performance video art), this animated composition is an homage at once to the history of video art and to the histories of abstract painting and textile creation. At the confluence of artisanship and digital art, Pixels, Petit Point and Monument plunges evening passersby on Sherbrooke Street West into a contemplative and dreamlike meditation that evokes the poetics of movement and the poetry of the everyday.

Involved in every step of the production from conception to projection, Bujold describes her process as “videographic weaving,” in which concepts evolve and concretize in the process of making. “I think about video like textile creation – from its smallest unit, the stitch (plan), to the thread (sequence), the actual fabric (montage), and its materiality (screen-based distribution or projection),” the artist explains. Referring to her newest work more specifically, she muses, “It’s in the marriage between real and abstract, the plodding pace of labour and the instantaneousness of digital tools, between depth and surface where the interactions occur.”

About the artist

Born in Gaspésie, Nathalie Bujold currently lives and works in Montreal. Her works have been exhibited widely across Canada and internationally. She has received numerous accolades, including the Artistic Creation Award from the Conseil des arts et lettres du Québec and the René-Richard Award.