Banc-Tombeau

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The work of Lorraine Fontaine takes the form of a constant search for identity, questions the fundamental relationships between nature and culture, and attests to the concept of the sacred object, the reliquary, memory.  "Uncover the traces, turn back time,” she states.  With the thick glass surface covering it, this Bench-tombstone, a glass and steel trunk, exposes to the viewer the bark of a 350-year-old ash tree, the seed of which was brought to France by the artist’s family when they emigrated from Canada and then planted in their new homeland.  When it died after being struck by lightning, this ash tree became a work of tribute, paid to its French origins and made part of a setting that seems to want to guard a piece of nature carefully from the outrage of time.