COUSINEAU, Sylvain P. (1949-2013)

Sylvain Cousineau completed an MFA from the Visual Studies Workshop in Rochester, New York (1974), and was a professor in the visual arts department at the University of Ottawa. He worked in a range of mediums – photography, assemblage, painting and installation – with a view to experimenting with visual effects and the transposition of meaning, where the monumentality (both physical and historical) of a subject was often paired with the idea of failure. For example, in Tour de pise, presented at the Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal (MAC) in 1995, a slanted floor left visitors feeling somewhat off-balance. In 2000, Cousineau participated in another event at the MAC entitled Millénaire mon oeil! Culbute. Oeuvres d’impertinences. The exhibition featured 23 Quebec, Canadian and international artists whose work was characterized by its playful, ironic, derisory or absurd nature.