My career spans 40 years. My work kept changing as I acquired more experience and maturity. It fluctuated with my emotions, the physical spaces I was in, the connections I made, my social milieu, special events and influences. These are the reasons why I shared my career in five periods. I began making art professionally at 28 in France in 1960. This first period is about how I dealt with the Second World War. I was expressing the extreme pressures I was under in my childhood and adolescence. Then came the period of exile to Canada. I was fleeing the old world as well as the world of ideas and memory the war had brought about. On the new continent, I slowly recognized my thirst for freedom. That freedom allowed me to question my identity. I struggled with many difficulties and the emotions they stirred up were first on my list of preoccupations. At the beginning of the third period, I finally discovered light not in terms of its capacity to reveal the world around us (this is a revelation for me) but more as a malleable material like stone and clay from which to extract spiritual content. My fourth period is about affirmation and expansion. I finally mastered the technical tools for my ideals to come to fruition. I created monumental works that reflected my own existential concerns. The last period is much more serene as I allow myself to experiment with
diverse artistic languages (video, virtual and new spaces, sound, etc.).
My research involves finding new ways of expression and the best conditions
to show my work. Georges Dyens,
|