While wandering aimlessly in Montreal's Golden Square area, it was a lovely surprise to come across a string of white flowers adorned with gold lacquer adorning the inner courtyard of the Four Seasons Hotel Montreal. The white flowers contrast sharply with the dark courtyard, they are either blooming or reserved, showing different forms. You will guess whether they grow up from the earth or float down from the sky. This metaphor of natural circulation slowly unfolds along the courtyard space of the hotel, bursting out a visual impact like a waterfall pouring down, and at the same time, it can make people feel the lightness of flowers made of clay. Created by the Montreal design firm Atelier Pascale Girardin, this work titled "Contemplation" is indeed easy to attract people to stop and think about the relationship between the environment, art and people themselves.
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Pascale Girardin, founder of the design firm, believes that design is a medium through which we understand the world. She said: "Design surrounds us and inhabits every corner of our lives. It affects our overall well-being. Sustainable, sophisticated The design can reflect our values, and it can also be an inspiration for how people live and live in this world, because the proposition of "finding yourself" is always connected with our senses through the environment." Most of the works are made of clay. The basic material means that the craftsmen of Pascale Girardin studio will constantly interact with the material during the creation process. Handmade pottery works are drawn, kneaded, carved, and finally fired into shape through the hands of craftsmen, showing unpredictable textures. They have warmth and are endowed with meaning. This kind of artwork produced by the interaction between people and things not only presents professional knowledge, but also contains the infinite curiosity of human beings and the aesthetic feeling generated by uncertainty.
Wild Roses – West Edmontan Mall – Edmonton
Desert Breeze – Four Seasons Hotel – Las Vegas
Girardin's relationship with ceramic art dates back more than forty years, recalling: "I became interested in ceramics in 1982 while studying fine arts at Concordia University in Montreal. Through the doors of the ceramic studio, I always would stare curiously at the sculptures drying on the shelf, how I wish I could have switched my major from painting to ceramic art. Alas, the courses are always overcrowded. I had to wait until 1994, via Montreal's Center de Céramique Bonsecours takes a one-year intensive course to get fully exposed to this craft.” In the late 1990s, the Pascale Girardin studio was officially established. Initially, the challenges of finding space and a kiln, buying equipment, marketing her work in the pre-social media and website age, while caring for her young son made Girardin's first few years difficult, and her The coping strategy is to focus on long-term goals and avoid falling into the trap of focusing only on short-term rewards.
As the team and job offers expanded, Studio Pascale Girardin moved from Girardin's suburban residence to a 4,000-square-foot space in Montreal, a move that allowed the studio to take on larger projects and hire from nearby universities assistant. The open workspace allows the flow between various work tasks – from hand pinching, casting, glazing to packaging, while also ensuring the safety of employees during the epidemic. The size and tasks of the studio have slowly increased, and in Girardin's eyes, her clients have always sought cooperation with similar visions. "My clients come to my studio because they identify with my aesthetic: effortless, elegant, effortless yet sophisticated, and inspired by natural forms," she says. More points than differences. Do clients’ needs change over time? I don’t think so, because timeless art is just that: immortal.”
Stoneware Art Installation Anthology – Clement Reaturant – New York
Decorative stoneware made by the studio for New York's Nobu Downtown restaurant
Today, the sculptures and art installations of Pascale Girardin 's studio are located in many luxury hotels and shopping malls around the world: Four Seasons Hotel, Saks Fifth Avenue , Ritz-Carlton Hotel … Even though most of the customers are high-end brands and individuals, Girardin's vision for design art Still full of idealist innocence, she hopes that people will reconsider art and good design not just as a decorative element, but as a medium to enhance the experience of life. Just as making ceramics requires total immersion of body and mind, so it is with life – to feel it, to understand its essence.
