Tribute to Sylvie Bélanger, 1951-2020

Sylvie Bélanger, 1951-2020

Sylvie passed away on October 8, 2020. As many of us know, Sylvie was (it feels strange to write about her in the past tense) a respected artist and a committed educator. But for me, she was a friend. I’ve known her for 20 years, so my memory might be less than accurate but this is how I remember meeting her for the first time at her exhibition at YYZ in Toronto. I went to the gallery to introduce myself as I had recently found out that I had been accepted into the MFA program at the University of Windsor where she was teaching. I knew her work, spent time reading about her installations but had never seen her work in person. I am a shy person. So instead of talking to anyone, I stayed in a darkened room with her work Le regard du silence. The work was so quiet. I felt I may disturb the image if I were to walk around. I sat and watched the slow turning page in the projected image as the face in the video slowly dissolves and disappears. I was so moved by her work, I decided to be courageous and ask her to be on my committee. Many years later she told me how she made the work to look so natural, which I won’t reveal because there was a little trick to it. She was always ingenious when it came to solving problems.

Working with Sylvie could be painstakingly intense, but this is how I learned that there is no problem that can’t be solved. When I was helping her with Fragments d’une histoire, we went around collecting the “perfect” fallen red maple leaves in the park. This was only the beginning of her pursuing to make the video with leaves falling as natural as possible. It was a contradicted effort to mimic nature through recording leaves falling in a studio. But in the end, she found the way to make it work. Similar to the steady slowness in Le regard du silence, the leaves fell in her video with ease, paired with the slow stride of Didier walking into the forest on the other side of the work. The calming pace in her work is effortless; at the same time, it is perfectly measured.   

We hung out a lot at her Toronto studio. Many times, I would stay late into the evening because our conversations often went on for an indefinite time. Rick always made wonderful meals. It was a given that there would be an extra plate for me at their dinner table. Over the years, she taught me many things. One of them is her love for animals, particularly dogs. She was always with her dogs, all the way to the end. She taught her classes with her dog next to her. We often joked about how Dismal (her Poodle) was our TA. I think my love of dogs solidified because of her, and now they are and will always be in my life. Sylvie was undeniably generous with her time, sharing of knowledge and ideas; she was honestly critical; she was overwhelmingly filled with empathy; she was passionate, especially towards art. She wanted to talk about art and her new project to the very end. 

So, I was wrong. She was never just a friend. She was and always will be an artist I admire and a mentor I love and respect. I am honoured that she was a part of my life. I think the only way to end this tribute is with her own words. Thank you, Sylvie and I will miss you. We all will.

“Art is social because it resuscitates again and again, fears, desires, hopes, anxieties, beliefs and the struggle of being at once in relationships to each other and in a world that has its own relationships. 

"L’art est social parce qu’il ressuscite constamment: craintes, désires, inquiétudes, convictions ainsi que la lutte du fait d’être en relation avec les autres et en même temps d’être dans un monde qui a ses propres relations”.                                                                                                      Sylvie Bélanger, 1985

June Pak, October 13, 2020, Toronto

Sylvie Bélanger's work is represented by Birch Contemporary You can read her full obituary here.