To understand how local artists shape the material to extract their vision of the world, you have to meet them. Spotlight is a series of portraits that appears every end of the month. Forays into the world of creators who work on their works in unusual ways, away from current cultural events.
For Carl-Philippe Simonise, there is no art that is not political. “What’s the subject?” If there isn’t one, it’s decoration,” says the multidisciplinary artist who, although she is not represented by a gallery, has a series of artistic residencies: Hugues Charbonneau, Fonderie Darling and today today at the Maison d’Haïti Arts Center. Whether it is cinema or visual art, the themes she addresses in her works, often abstract and loaded with color, range from the human condition to geopolitics, including the movements of peoples, the immigration, wars, etc. “I want to talk about what I see in the street: people are really sadder, people have less patience. And then the loneliness. I see lots of people walking alone, going to the park alone,” she adds, while emphasizing that the face of Montreal is visibly evolving. “The thousands of people who weren’t there before, I see them. I see how they adapt. »
Everything can, everything must be political, according to Carl-Philippe Simonise. “Even if it is on a personal level, because if your practice allows you to rise, to awaken, to emancipate yourself, you contribute better to society. So, it becomes a political gesture,” she believes. However, the artist points to a complex, even sanitized, era, for her as for her peers. “It was very difficult during the last year to navigate the art world, because I felt like we didn’t want to talk about anything,” she says. Since the exhibitions would not be sufficiently focused on the message, it would then be almost impossible to create open discussion spaces.
In 2024, we are not teaching artists to be artists. She is convinced of it. “We teach you to do politics, not to be political,” she said. While it is important for her to name what is wrong in the art world, the reality is, of course, a little more nuanced. “There are a few people who have notoriety or power, so they give themselves the freedom to do it. And there are people who have a vision. It’s rare, but it exists,” recognizes Carl-Philippe Simonise, while regretting that audacity is not more encouraged. “There is a whole mechanism in place, I think, and I want to say that it forces us to move the cursor as far as possible from the message,” she remarks.
The problem of tokenism
While she participated a few weeks ago in the Black Summer’91 exhibition, and for the occasion indulged in something more figurative, the artist also noted the unfortunate tendency to want to follow the “official” calendar “.
“I would say the exhibit was groundbreaking, because anyone else would have done it in February, during Black History Month… No, no, we can do it all year round” , she indicates. According to Carl-Philippe Simonise, the rules of political correctness too frequently take over. “We’re going to talk about gays during the Pride and Blacks in February, and there we will be safebecause afterwards, we will be afraid, if we do it too often, of appearing to be exploitative. This is all politics. “, she notes.
Furthermore, when she talks about transphobia in art, Carl-Philippe Simonise notes a recurring comment. “People tell me “ah yes, but it’s strange, I would have thought that the environment was more open”, but no, the art world is exactly like the world of footballlike everything else, it’s the same thing. It is mainstream », affirms the one who, originally, wanted to be an artist to escape politics, a universe in which her father lived in Haiti. “I realize today that it’s the same thing, it’s the search for power. Everyone is in the campaign,” she assures. ““Love me!” »
The artist thus has the impression that she is sometimes approached for possible collaborations for superficial reasons. She explains that at the last minute, she can be asked if she agrees to participate in an exhibition, for example. “And then I realize that it’s because there are no black people, no queer people, no trans people. »
And Basquiat in all this?
Carl-Philippe Simonise was also very — too much? — often said that his work resembled that of Jean-Michel Basquiat. “I was put in this box so much that I tried to avoid it for a long time,” she confides, while her participation in Black Summer’91 allowed him to delve into the heart of the always political works of the painter, as well as those of director Spike Lee. “Everything I wanted to do was there, actually,” she adds. Copying Basquiat, however, because his paintings sell for millions of dollars? No, obviously. “I am inspired by his work and his way of transforming anger,” she says, however. If she was used to producing grace with ugliness, the artist, in fact, admires the New Yorker’s crude use of violence and now imagines, why not, being part of this approach. “It does magnificent things and that’s what’s great about him,” she believes.
The Montrealer also feels that, now more than before, her reality somewhat resembles that of Basquiat, also of Haitian ancestry. “To the extent that I too evolve in the West,” she considers. Carl-Philippe Simonise also sees in Basquiat’s art and freedom a way of moving on, of progressing. “Which could be a definition of transitioning, because you yourself must first learn to accept yourself, to find yourself as you would like, so that others will accept you. »
Cohabitation with the soul of Basquiat during the preparation of Black Summer’91 was therefore a transformative experience for Carl-Philippe Simonise. “Not because he is black, Haitian and queer, but because our stories, which want to transform existence into something beautiful, have a direct link,” she thinks. The exercise was also a way for the artist to create himself “personally” to better engage with the world. And to add: “The physical work of painting participates and contributes to my mental and aesthetic transition”, in reference to the easy, enjoyable and carnal side of Basquiat.
“Art is for it to live,” concludes Carl-Philippe Simonise. So if in 2024, art is dead, long live art!