Sonia Robertson

Skol Gallery’s space was once occupied by a furrier, when Montreal was a centre for the trade. The animals... thoughts, dreams, visions... The spirit of animals haunts me. Coincidence. A connection is made: In 1992, Skol presented my sister Diane’s show L’esprit des animaux [The animal spirit]. A year later she died. This is how and where our dialogue about the spirit of animals begins.

“The hunter hangs the animal’s skull in a tree, and when the skull falls to the ground, the animal’s spirit is freed,” states Diane Robertson on the exhibition’s audio track.

The spirits of animals put to commercial use are here freed to the west (the direction of the window), the way into the spirit world.

By creating atmospheres and impressions, I attempt to make the invisible seen, with a central concern that all things are related in what we might call the Sacred Circle, the Tree of Life.

– Sonia Robertson