Suzanne Husky at Drawing Lab

Deep river time

January 26 – April 7, 2024

ARTIST : SUZANNE HUSKY

CURATOR: LAURANNE GERMOND

In the great tradition of naturalist illustration, Suzanne Husky invites us to reconsider the long history of the river through the geopolitical history of alliances between humans and beavers. An epic adventure, conceived with the collaboration of philosopher-researcher Baptiste Morizot, teeming with delightful sketches, and re-anchoring us in a world that’s bigger and more wonderful than the history of mankind: the great history of living things.

For 8 million years, beavers lived in every river in the northern hemisphere. Considered to be the greatest transformer of its environment after man, for many years it was man who brought life into the world. It produced aquatic landscapes and wetlands teeming with biodiversity. He was venerated, sometimes deified, for this reason, and his presence can be found in many French toponyms and hydronyms. But human geography gradually took the place of beaver geography, leading to its virtual disappearance from our rivers, cultures and imaginations, and with it the collapse of an entire ecosystem. Today, however, the reintroduction of the beaver is advocated by the IPCC as one of the first nature-based solutions for repairing our ailing environments and coping with climate change.

Drawing on the vast universe of images and graphic and epistemological innovations that have marked the history of drawing, from illustrated narratives to naturalistic plates, mythological allegories and militant graphics, Suzanne Husky reconsiders the complex components of the water cycle. It perpetuates the history of the aesthetic staging of scientific knowledge by restoring the beaver to its rightful place, reviving the forgotten face of healthy rivers and the thousand and one species in decline that usually populate its ecosystem, and reviving our original link to the wetland. His drawings are a tribute to the providential animal and its defenders. They advocate a new alliance with the living, giving hope and the desire to join forces to restore the world to its beauty.

Events during the exhibition

On purpose
Wednesday, January 31 – 7:30 p.m.

Dialogue between artist Suzanne Husky and exhibition curator Lauranne Germond

The story of Suzanne Husky’s approach and her works will open the way to a reflection on the role of the artist, her commitment and the transformative potential of art at a time of ecological urgency. the role of the artist, her commitment and the transformative potential of art at a time of ecological urgency.

River work
Wednesday, March 6 – 7:30 p.m.
Dialogue between Suzanne Husky and Camille de Toledo, essayist and writer

At a time when the productive forces of animals, plants and minerals are gradually emerging from invisibility, Suzanne Husky and writer and researcher Camille de Toledo – who is currently leading the research project “Towards an International of rivers and other elements of nature…” with L’Institut d’Études Avancées and Le Lieu Unique – discuss the possibilities of a new relationship with entities of nature, reoriented towards life.

Beaver Festival
Saturday, April 6 – 7:30 p.m.
Multidisciplinary evening in the exhibition (concert, performances, tours, etc.)

On this April 6, the eve of International Beaver Day and the closing of the exhibition Le temps let’s get together for an evening of experiments in honor of the people of water.

About Drawing Lab

Founded by Christine Phal in 2017 on a philanthropic model, Drawing Lab is a 150 m2 private experimental and exhibition space entirely dedicated to promoting contemporary drawing. Presenting 3 exhibitions a year, it aims above all to be a place for the dissemination of drawing in all its forms, giving artists the opportunity to get drawing off the page and explore all its facets.

Drawing Lab
17, rue de Richelieu, 75001 Paris

drawinglabparis.com