Scatter like Seeds

McBride Contemporain is pleased to present Scatter like Seeds, a duo exhibition bringing together the works of David Hanes and Alice Zerini-Le Reste, two Canadian artists currently working internationally. This show highlights artworks that bear the imprints of traveled landscapes, evoking the intangible relationships between past and present. On one hand, Hanes sketches fleeting moments in nature, later transforming them into vivid paintings reimagined through distance and memory. Alternatively, Zerini-Le Reste gathers materials for her ceramics from the landscapes she traverses or gives a second life to discarded firing plates. The works in this exhibition reveal the multiple transformations that have shaped them, opening paths to unsuspected narratives. Based in Berlin since 2014, David Hanes cultivates a rich and introspective painting practice nourished by his many travels and residencies. During his journeys, the artist captures ephemeral moments in nature in the form of intuitive sketches that he describes as Momentaufnahme - a German expression that evokes the immediacy of the snapshot. Once returned to his studio, Hanes revisits these studies, which he sees as souvenirs or conduits to the experiences and emotions he has felt, before reinterpreting them in striking paintings. These fragments of life, transformed by their pictorial translation, reveal layers of memory and perception. Shaped by the passage of time and distance, his works question the way in which memories and emotions redefine the contours of our mental landscapes. Alice Zerini-Le Reste, who is currently pursuing her Master's degree in Stockholm, Sweden, also has a profound relationship with the landscape, shaped by her travels and years spent navigating the St. Lawrence River. This immersion in an environment marked by slowness and stillness has nourished her reflection on how a place can be transposed into an artwork. In this exhibition, the artist presents works exploring the interplay between line and surface, reusing ceramic firing plates considered obsolete. Bearing residual traces of previous firings - glaze overflows, heat marks - the artist inscribes drawings of architecture, objects, or myths, evoking the sediments of a bygone era. Through this act of material reappropriation, Zerini-Le Reste creates poetic palimpsests where narratives and temporal layers intertwine and where the archive encounters the myth. Scatter like Seeds invites the public to reflect on how works can activate multiple temporalities, carrying fragments of past moments that actively engage with the present and future. Through their respective practices, David Hanes and Alice Zerini-Le Reste highlight the inherent capacity of objects to carry narratives and perceptions from one place to another, much like seeds destined to unfold into new forms.