Jean-Paul Labelle

My artistic approach revolves around non-renewable energies that surround me. Instead of trying to illustrate these urban vibrations, the object itself which radiates this stress becomes the actual subject of my research. Highlighting these recycled items, I try to bring out their metaphysical energy which connects them with human activity.

My motivation resides in the technical challenges when working with abandoned objects. I remain in awe of the built object, marked by wear and tear. Like an anthropologist, I am endlessly in search of traces left by Man. I use the artwork as a durable vehicle to present my research in a form that recall the archive.

In short, my pieces should not only satisfy an aesthetic expectation, but should also cause the viewer to question the object and its relationship to the urban world; it must create its own semantics, its own laws. My goal is for the viewer to reflect on the intimate relationship between the immanent and the transcendent.