The creative force of Laur Pilon is turning heads in the Canadian art world.
A PhD in Interdisciplinary Humanities student, Pilon is earning national attention for his work in research-creation, a practice-based approach to research that combines creative and academic exploration generating new knowledge and innovative ideas.
PhD in Interdisciplinary Humanities student Laur Pilon's painting The figure's rebirth unfolds in a leaky silence from a body of work entitled If Daffodil Was an Egg was recently acquisitioned by the National Gallery of Canada.
Pilon's painting The figure's rebirth unfolds in a leaky silence was selected earlier this year by the National Gallery of Canada in Ottawa to be part of its collection.
The National Gallery of Canada recognition marks the second time Pilon's work has been acquisitioned by a celebrated Canadian museum, with one of his paintings already part of the permanent collection at Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO).
"I've wanted to be an artist since I was a child, and I was lucky to be exposed to galleries and museums at a young age; to have my work in the National Gallery of Canada my favourite place to visit as a child and to be seen in this way, is an honour," he said.
Producing art under the name Laur P,' Pilon's creative practice is rooted in painting and more recently, sculptural work.
"The sculptures and paintings I make are in dialogue with each other: my work deals with abstraction; separate concepts or forms are combined to become otherwise," he said.
He began thematically exploring a paleontological term, "fossil problematica," which describes fossils that are too severely altered from their original state to be identified or categorized, during Pilon's graduate studies in University of Guelph's Master of Fine Arts in Studio Art program.
"I use this as a metaphor in my work the concept of geological fusing of materials to create hybrid or new, unrecognizable forms," he said.
Pilon's paintings and sculptures, including The figure's rebirth unfolds in a leaky silence, use a number of techniques that visually communicate his theoretical research by creating textured layers on the canvas.
In his latest body of works, If Daffodil Was an Egg, Pilon explored his own lived experience as a transgender person. His concept drew inspiration from the Greek mythological figure Narcissus, who infamously fell in love with his own reflection gazing into a pool before fully transforming into a flower.
The works, speaking of a pre-transitioning experience of misrecognition, are a form of self-portrait, but one that is hard to read, blurred around the edges.
"I made impressions of my pre-transition body in the paint, and they became the base materials I worked with. I also embedded aluminum leaf, so there is a slight refracting of light, but not a clear reflection like a mirror," he said.
At Brock, Pilon will expand his research-creation work exploring queer, trans and crip theories and posthumanism while creating new bodies of works.
"I see myself as an artist and researcher; I am motivated to try new creative processes and share my perspectives through making art here at Brock," Pilon said.
Christine Daigle, Professor of Philosophy and Pilon's PhD supervisor, said his work offers essential reflection for troubled times.
"In combining artistic practice involving painting and sculpture with philosophical posthumanist inquiries into questions of identity, such as gender fluidity, transitioning, queerness and disability, Laur imagines identities that are constructed otherwise, and no longer focused on the binaries and hierarchies that have fuelled oppressive socio-cultural and political systems," she said.
