Starting in January 2014, Quebec based artist Jean Bergeron started making a collage a day. His materials were the papers that enter into our daily lives, mostly unnoticed, a lot of mark making, written notes and bold colors to create what he calls a 'visual diary'.
From this persistent project bold collages have emerged out of the mundane daily collections. In fact, I dare to say these collages exemplify how beauty can be found in the simple things around us.
Bergeron taps into something very intuitive when creating it appears. Some motifs show up over and over again such as the skull; as much a symbol of our living existence as it is our death. Written notes in English and French appear, doodles and mark making one might make while idly sitting on the phone waiting for a person to answer are layered over each other.
It takes an immense commitment to produce something each day from what you can find. I imagine some days are harder than others based on what materials enter into the equation, but Bergeron seems to be the type of artist who just puts his head down and works without expectation.
Some days the receipts, labels, newspaper clippings and packaging may be scarce and mark making becomes the highlight of the work, like the piece to the right. Other days imagery from unknown sources are available and add representational aspects.
Reading the reviews on Bergeron's Etsy shop, vie_pub_like, one shopper noted that the artwork was a perfect addition to their abstract artworks while another complimented Bergeron's ability to employ a garbage aesthetic while creating something of beauty.
Bergeron writes about why the project is labelled Vie_pub_like:
'The title Life pub_like, is explained like this: The word Life, for what it means and in the word pub_like, we find the term pub, which alludes to referential clues such as invoices or commercial places possibly visited during the day. There is also the word "like", a direct reference to the social network Facebook and a term demonstrating a certain appreciation of the work presented.'
'This Time Last Year' is a collection of collages from November 15-November 29 of 2022 inclusively. It is my hope that there is a collection of the similar visual diary installments from Bergeron this year and 2024 as well.
Visit the show from November 14-28 in person at the gallery between 12-6pm Tuesday to Saturday, or online now at the link here.
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