Like a heroine brandishing her weapon, a towering figure emerges from an alleyway with a sculptor’s hammer held aloft, headed for Rue Saint-Paul in Old Quebec. Her jumpsuit and hammer evoke her studio work and stress the great labour and technical skill involved in the creative process.
In this wryly self-referential sculpture, the work’s creator is also the person represented. Valérie Potvin here affirms and valorizes her own status as artist, while also suggesting the need for greater recognition of women artists in sculpture, still a largely male-dominated discipline. Stoic and unshakeable on its plinth, the alabaster monument is also an homage to women’s strength and undisputed importance in the world of public art.
valeriepotvin.com
