Rosalie D. Gagné: A Contemporary Alchemist

Over the last twenty-five years, Rosalie D. Gagné has made a series of works that demonstrate her ability to combine manual sculpting practices with new technologies. She has explored the traditional arts of glassblowing and clay, but also composes with synthetic materials and electronics, including polyethylene, ventilators, motion detectors, LED light systems, and computers. Since 2018, in collaboration with her colleague Sofian Audry, she has been working on an ambitious project called Morphosis involving robots and machine learning algorithms.

With ventures into biology and meditation, Gagné’s work combines opposing worlds— organic and artificial, solid and ethereal, microcosm and macrocosm—and investigates the ensuing tensions. The artist also revealed an early fascination with alchemy, manifested through works featuring eccentric glass vases and liquids of all sorts—resembling at times those of a chemistry laboratory. Inspired by Foucault’s device, she made hanging sculptures such as Pendulum (2006), which expressed her interest in cosmology and the place of hu- mankind and Earth in the universe. Since 2009, she has created a number of installations generating sound, movement, and color, while exploring biomimicry through sculptures that replicate shapes and behaviors found in nature. Gagné’s latest works have become major installations, including Artificial Kingdom IV (2020): forty-five inflatable polyethylene cells hanging from a thirty-foot ceiling and reacting to the visitor’s presence. Born in Québec City, Rosalie D. Gagné is a true Pan-American artist, whose career can be traced between Québec, Mexico City, and Montreal, where she currently resides and practices.