Emergency Quilts

Emergency blanket and paint / 24 x 48” — 2023

EMERGENCY QUILTS is a series of emergency blankets (a light metal-coated sheet designed to trap body heat) ornamented with traditional quilt patterns. It is an act of solidarity with the rising number of homeless people in Canada. This “Rail Fence” quilt pattern is the first of a series started in Halifax, Nova Scotia (where the number of homeless people doubled in 2021), as the initial phase of a larger community project.

The first prototype was offered for the auction of the local Organization Wonder’neath Art Society, which shared the profit with Shelter Nova Scotia.

Acknowledgment: The production of this project is supported by the Canada Council for the Arts.

Les dents de la Mer

Cement and steel / 22 x 20 x 3” — 2023

What if a sentient Mother Earth had enough of being abused by humans and was sending its most notorious marine predators after us?

LES DENTS DE LA MER* is a group of shark fins emerging from the ground to tail the public on land. The project appears as a playful intervention and a cautionary tale about the consequences of messing up the ecosystem. The fins were installed for the first time in the coastal city of Annapolis Royal (Nova Scotia), like they were coming inland from the Atlantic Ocean.

*LES DENTS DE LA MER can be translated as "The teeth of the Sea". It is the French title of the American natural horror film series JAWS.

Softest bullet

wool / 3 x 3 x 6" — 2021

Life-size bullet made of needle-felted wool. Action movies, child-soldiers, gun legislation, and mass shootings: this work is a study on our love-hate relationship with firearms.

Finalist in sculpture for the 2021 NSCAD Student Art Award.

Shadows of an Epoch

outdoor paint / 10 x 60’ — 2022

SHADOWS OF AN EPOCH is an ephemeral mural including shadows of roaming wolves painted on the campus of Memorial University of Newfoundland and Labrador, in St. John’s. It is a collective reminder that the Newfoundland Wolf roamed the island until its extinction due to colonization in 1930. Similar to an oral tradition, these shadows are an invitation to gather and speak in a hushed voice: remember that wolves roamed the hilly and the rugged inland of the island for thousands of years; do not forget, share, and learn from it.

Acknowledgment: This project would not have been possible without the generosity of the Grenfell Art Gallery of Memorial University and the Natural History Collections of the Rooms.

Press

Share and Learn: Street wall mural in response to climate emergency and colonization
Mandy Cook
Gazette — September 15, 2022
Read the article

Une murale en mémoire du loup de Terre-Neuve
Caroline Lévesque
Radio-Canada — September 12, 2022
Listen to the interview

Une murale en mémoire du loup de Terre-Neuve
Caroline Lévesque
Radio-Canada — September 12, 2022
Read the article

Remains

waste — 2021

REMAINS is an exhibition of things that continue to exist even after being discarded. The public could visit the installation and browse the virtual collection of the project to learn about the surprising life of waste such as a broken sewing machine, pottery fragment, damaged lobster buoy, lost glove, crooked bicycle wheel, used motorcycle tire, abandoned table legs, crushed teapot, and parts of a dismantled piano.

Acknowledgment: This project would not have been possible without the collaboration of the Halifax Solid Waste Resources Educator, Nova Scotia.

Press

Une exposition présente des déchets pour susciter des réflexions à Halifax
Caroline Lévesque
Radio-Canada — April 13, 2021
Read the article or listen to the interview

Talking Trash with MFA Student Marie-Soleil Provençal on Earth Day
Jessica Murray
NSCAD University — April 22, 2021
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Trash talk: NSCAD student Marie-Soleil Provençal turns other people’s garbage into art
Hollie Uffindell
Saltwire, Chronicle Herald — April 22, 2021
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MARIE-SOLEIL PROVENÇAL — 2021