Jocelyne Le Léannec
Jocelyne Le Léannec is a Winnipeg-based artist who works with digital media and glass arts. She studied Multimedia Communications at the Université de Saint-Boniface. She has showcased her short films at various film festivals across Canada (including the Montreal World Film Festival) and internationally in the United States, Germany, and Romania. She is the recipient of several awards and grants, including the Viewers Choice Award at the Cinémental Festival, Best Film and Collaboration awards at F-Wordz, and professional development and project grants from Francofonds, Winnipeg Arts Council, Manitoba Arts Council, and Canada Council for the Arts. In 2019, Le Léannec began working on a solo exhibition entitled Blackwater Lake. The exhibition, which had its inaugural opening in January 2023, explores the interaction between a traditional medium (art glass) and a digital medium (animation) to depict the contrast between life and death, light and dark. It features a combination of glass wall panels and sculptural glass artworks, some of which are illuminated by animated video projections. This innovative combination of animation, video projection, and glass artwork creates a unique and engaging experience for viewers. Le Léannec's art practice has evolved over time, as evidenced by her shift from animation to glass for her Blackwater Lake exhibition. Her background in multimedia, animation, and projection mapping and her experience showcasing her video work at film festivals have undoubtedly influenced her innovative use of technology and the interplay between different mediums in her artwork.
“My work intends to attract and repel, pulling the viewer in while simultaneously provoking feelings of uneasiness and slight discomfort. Inspired by subject matter related to everything macabre, horror movies, dark comedy, and low poly video games, I create strange-themed worlds inhabited by mysterious animals, humanoids, and other dark creatures. I am most attracted to the spooky things that break and twist us, those which lead to the contemplation of life and death. Having lost both my mother and grandmother within two years, I felt compelled to explore a visual representation of the juxtaposition of light and dark in a much more literal sense. Thanks to the support of the Winnipeg Arts Council, Manitoba Arts Council, Canada Council for the Arts, and Froncofonds, I was able to pursue my most recent project, a solo exhibition entitled Blackwater Lake. These are 3 works from that project.”