Photo : Ysabelle Forest Folder, courtesy of the artist
A Polyphonic Community
Power relationships are central to the work of Cynthia Girard-Renard, who references such figures as Marx, Arendt, Sade, Fanon, Vallières, and Haraway. Calls for rebellion are also plentiful, whether by reference to the sans-culottes and the French Revolution, by echoing protest slogans, or by denouncing the racism and injustices associated with the mystifications of capitalism. Behind the main figures in her paintings, secondary actors have a voice: they call for resisting “united and together,” they challenge such questions as the meaning of “colourism,” a term that refers both to the role of colour in Girard-Renard’s work and to charts that show intensity of skin colour to serve as a factor for identification and discrimination. Her paintings abound in such wordplay; their pop look seduces viewers only to confound them, with the turn of a phrase, by showing the underbelly of their sugar-coated scenery.
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