Cynthia G. Renard | The Woman Who Flies to the Rescue of Bats

Making people love a misunderstood and endangered animal: the bat. This is the mission of painter Cynthia G. Renard in her colorful exhibition I save mice/Become a bat. An accessible art located between documentary and imagination, adapted to the generation of tomorrow.

“I’m going to be a bat advocate,” says Quebec artist Cynthia G. Renard, who has been working on this body of work for more than six years. In the exhibition room of the Maison de la culture Claude-Léveillée in the Villeray district, the walls are adorned with vibrant canvases.

The painter wants to transform the feeling of aversion to these small mammals into love. For the artist who often works on climate issues, the feeling of empathy is the driving force behind the environmental struggle.

“I want to make paintings that are daring,” she says.

It is by combining a love of art and an interest in bats that she has created a bold exhibition, both in form and content. Through bright colors and maximalist patterns, Cynthia G. Renard offers new perspectives on biodiversity issues. In her style that approaches comic strips, each of the paintings is an animated film. The little-known beasts are transformed into “marvelous and fantastic” characters.

In these “docufiction” paintings, the artist presents various information about animals. One work informs us that there are eight species of bats in Quebec, three of which are endangered. In another, we learn that the smallest species of bat weighs only 2 g.

Empowering Youth

This art is particularly popular with children. The Claude-Léveillée cultural center hosts day camps several times a week to visit the exhibition I save mice/Become a bat.

The Maison d’Haïti camp, Kan Lakay in the Saint-Michel district, often visits the neighborhood’s cultural center. The children express a keen curiosity about the bats and colorful works, according to the cultural mediator responsible for guided tours, Julie Legault.

Cynthia G. Renard’s paintings help young people understand various climate issues. Thanks to their visit, which The Press attended, the children of Kan Lakay learned about the importance that each animal plays in the ecosystem. “If there are more bats, there are more humans,” said Bethsaida, 9.

” In Canada, [les chauves-souris] are endangered, so she does this to protect them,” says Randy, 10.

The artist admits a certain naivety in her artistic proposal. But it is this optimism that could counter the eco-anxiety that many feel, according to her. “I am tired of seeing works on ecology that are like a drama, an opera of the end of the world. […] I mean, maybe there are still ways to be active,” she suggests.

A “drunk with joy” style

Above all, aesthetics are at the heart of Cynthia G. Renard’s work. “People like it when it’s refined, when it’s black and white, when there’s almost nothing. But I find that desire takes on lots of colors, lots of patterns. It makes me drunk with joy,” says the artist.

Throughout the exhibition, we see inspirations from kinetic art, expressionism, realism and abstract art. Textiles, canvases, books, videos and photos all become media for the artist. Some paintings detail the anatomy of bats in an observational art, while others play with the imaginary of vampires through figurative art.

Breaking down hierarchies

“I use different languages ​​without putting one at the top of the pyramid,” summarizes Cynthia G. Renard. The artist seeks to create accessible art that can touch the public, unlike a more “hermetic” contemporary art.

“What’s the point of talking about ecology if we can just talk about it among artists?” she asks.

In her paintings, she highlights her appreciation of popular culture to break the boundaries drawn by academic art. “I find it fun to take things down from their pedestals and rework them. For me, it’s more democratic,” she illustrates.

For example, the windows of the Claude-Léveillée cultural center are decorated with stained glass bats made with colored acetates. This is a project that was carried out with the Jumeleurs, a community organization in Saint-Michel that supports adults with an intellectual disability, a learning disability or an autism spectrum disorder.

At the end of the guided tours, groups of children visiting the exhibition make a stained glass craft like the one by the Twinners. The children take part in the difficult exercise of choosing pieces of colored acetate and forming a bat.

Like Cynthia G. Renard, 11-year-old Line draws hearts around her bat. Why? “Because now I like bats.”

The exhibition I smouse-catcher/Becoming a bat by Cynthia G. Renard is at the Claude-Léveillée cultural center until August 25.

Visit the exhibition page