Born in Catalonia and living in Canada for the last decade, glass artist Montserrat Duran Muntadas became interested in the distance between her and her loved ones and in the consequences of not being able to attend their last moments of life due to the public-health measures imposed by the pandemic. Her project La femme aux mille c\u0153urs<\/em> is deeply rooted in the process of mourning the death of her maternal grandmother, as it was impossible for her to gather with her family to experience this final departure. Deprived of the symbolic rituals surrounding death, she probes, in a broader sense, their importance in the path toward acceptance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Isolation, old age, and death became the driving force for an inclusive project. Inspired by a piece of lace made by her grandmother, Duran Muntadas chose glass and linen as materials for honouring her. Grandmothers who crochet donated pieces of lace to cover a multitude of hearts made of blown glass. La femme aux mille c\u0153urs<\/em> allowed Duran Muntadas to work through her bereavement despite the distance; she also hoped that her project would break, for a time, the isolation experienced by the participants during the pandemic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Family is an inexhaustible wellspring of creativity for Duran Muntadas, who was inspired by her sisters in the choice of fabrics for her glass sculptures in the series Ovo\u00efdes<\/em>, by the letters written by her grandfather to his spouse for Quiero mis 1000 cartas de amor y ninguna canci\u00f3n desesperada<\/em>, and by the biological impossibility of forming a family herself with her spouse and collaborator, Jean-Simon Trottier. For the exhibition Mes beaux enfants et autres anomalies<\/em>, her sister-in-law made a highly organic painting of the female reproductive system, akin to works by American painter Georgia O\u2019Keeffe. Having received a diagnosis of infertility when she was a teenager, Duran Muntadas uses glass and textile arts to explore a reality that many suffer in silence. Her intimate creative process and feminist reflections open the door to many women practising glass art\u200a\u2014\u200aa discipline largely dominated by men.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Translated from the French by K\u00e4the Roth<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n