Maissimeuassi/Miramichi
Mi'kmaq land
Artists
Marielle Poirier
Roderick Simon
Miramichi
Land of the Mi’kmaqs: worship to the sun.
Majestic river, yesteryear highway with an appearance of a big river.
The tribe of the Porte-Croix knew this symbol before the arrival of White people.
She decorated their canoe with bark.
Then Jacques Cartier talks about the St.Lunaire Bay.
There was Fort Sainte-Croix of Sieur Denys governor and lieutenant general from Cape Breton to Gaspé.
The peregrinations of the Récollet Chrestien Le Clercq.
The resistance, the guerrilla war at the camp of Hope during the deportations.
There were 3000 Acadians in the calamity: hunger, cold, sickness, war.
They survived thanks to the Mi’kmaqs.
The tireless Sieur de Boishébert.
His name is changed to Beaubear Island; a contempt of the history.
The legendary Beausoleil Broussard is calling us out.
Region of the big white pines which reminds Longfellow.
« It’s the ancient forest!... The pines with the long whisper...»
Miramichi, giants of 120 feet high, four trees wide.
Like totems.
For the masts of the ships of the British Royal Navy.
Today land of Ireland, Mi’kmaq canvas, Acadian colour.
Pulp mill, salmon and trout, hunting and fishing.
In that country town, symposium of the cultures.
Life is bubbling in that pot of effervescence.
Where the wild rice is mixed up with the front door soup and four-leaf clover.
Looking for the 4th petal the fiddle heads and the starfish.
Marielle Poirier
Grande-Anse, N.B.
Originally from Maisonnette, New Brunswick, she now lives in Caraquet. She holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the Université du Québec à Montréal.
An artist strongly influenced by the environment in which she evolves, she has a passion for clay sculpture. Her interest in visual arts goes back to her early childhood. As a child, she would watch her mother make handicrafts from mirrors, empty bleach bottles, stones and shells, which she would then sell in the surrounding communities or display in her backyard.
Marielle Poirier uses her emotional memory and life experiences to create her works. They are fuelled by a beautiful fantasy and inspired by funny situations.
This sculpture highlights the beauty and nobility of a face with Amerindian features. Among the sources of inspiration for the realization of this work, let us mention the cult of the sun, the Baie Lunaire (said Jacques Cartier), the river with the appearance of a large river and the fact that three thousand Acadians survived thanks to the Mi'kmaqs during the deportation to these places.
The following quote from the words of Chief Dan George also strongly influenced the creation of this work:
"When the skin of my face is wrinkled like bark, my spirit will leave my body to go live in a tree. I have the earth for a face! If you ignore the one, you will neglect the other! If you hurt the one, the other will bear the scar! If you despise the one, the other will be dishonoured!"
Roderick Simon
Miramichi, N.B.
First Nations artist Roderick Simon draws his inspiration from his ancestors.
His work seems to refer to an imaginary landscape painted freely with bright colours. The modernity of the painting seduces and invites to dreaming.
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For the exhibition Irreducible racines, the artist is associated with the name "Miramichi".