Marie Khouri Q&A

We love local art and artists, and sculptor Marie Khouri, who is set to unveil a new piece of public art, titled Eyes On The Street, at Olympic Village this month, fits the bill perfectly. Marie represents the broad multicultural demographic of Western Canada, and has developed a vast range of cultural and historical influences within her practice. Best of all, she’s also participating in Arts Umbrella’s annual Splash Gala—an unforgettable art auction and gala featuring close to 100 works by prominent B.C. artists. The piece she has created especially for the live auction will be an anticipated opportunity for many of Vancouver’s art collectors! Read more about Marie in our Q&A, and more about Arts Umbrella’s Splash Gala at the end. —Noa Nichol

Tell us a bit about yourself and how different cultures/world experiences influence your work?

I am French, Lebanese and now Canadian, which from the start brings me to be multicultural. Born in Egypt and raised in Lebanon and France, I moved with my family to Vancouver some 11 years ago. Art came to me later in my life, after a career in finance, and truly by accident. Taking a sabbatical after we sold our company and wanting to try something very different from what I had done before. In this path, I stumbled upon sculpture when an instructor seeing my difficulty in expressing myself on a flat surface thought I may be more comfortable in 3-D. My hands became my language; I had just found a way to express things that I was never able to voice!

We are all influenced in our lives and I had been inspired by great artists, designers and architects; Arabic calligraphy may have also played a role in my discovery of the curves that are today part of my language. Embracing art later in my life made my early adult life and experiences become my tool—the canvas of my work. War experience, relocations, new habitats, adapting to new environments, to new countries, new languages and political structures enriched my artistic practice. I was able to transform these traumas and life experiences into forms and shapes that became my signature.

Clay has always been my medium; it has a memory, once shaped it resists to major changes but remains elastic! My works are usually casted in bronze, concrete or steel and other mediums, truly depending on what the sculpture resonates with. But almost all of them begin with a small clay maquette of 10cm.

How were you commissioned to do a public art piece for the City of Vancouver?

Public art gave another dimension to my work and really came to me in Vancouver. It stemmed from the need to democratize art and to bring it out of museums and galleries and make it available to everyone. Not simply to inform people that are expecting to see a curated show in a gallery, but for everyone to stumble upon a work of art in an unexpected place and to raise curiosity and conversation.

The first piece installed was a bench at Olympic Village; when asked to do a sculpture, a bench came to mind and a sculpture that people were able to sit on. Realizing there were three bus stops and a major train station in the entrance to Olympic Village with no seating available, I felt there was a need to create an element where people would be able to meet, to rest, to pause on.

For most public art installations you are required to send an application when the opportunity arises; you can then be shortlisted and selected with several other artists to present a project to a jury constituted of artists, curators, city representatives, architects, engineers and landscapers. You are then contacted to know the outcome.

How does Vancouver, the Lower Mainland, B.C., the West Coast play into/inspire your work?

Upon my arrival in Vancouver, I started working with wax. This form of direct casting into bronze allowed me to work my organic forms. The intense vegetation of this beautiful province, the parks and forest and the size of it translated for me into very large installations. I was weaving cedar branches that I dipped into hot wax and created nests and wombs they were very organic works, that took me to my source with the cedar branches reminiscing of the cedars of Lebanon and the nests wombs and sphere the homes that one has to nest in through his life, through the travels, the migrations … and sometimes leave behind and yearn for another.

How did you become involved with Arts Umbrella’s annual Splash Gala?

I donate to organizations that are close to my heart and that I can identify with. Children’s Hospital and Arts Umbrella Splash. As a devoted mother of three and an artist, I am dedicated to these causes. To help events such as Splash, which provides opportunities to all children to have a different voice, to be given the same opportunities as others and perhaps be able to respond to a yearning they may have in that field.

Sculpture has changed my life in ways that I could not have imagined. I was very happy in my previous life my previous career, successful and dedicated BUT only when I touched a lump of clay and had this yearning to pursue the gesture did I come to realize what PASSION WAS.

I live, I breath, I exist through it.

It is never too late to embrace another path in life that may lead you to your passion.

Arts Umbrella Splash gala is a highly anticipated evening for Vancouver’s collectors and philanthropists, with unique pieces of artwork donated by celebrated Canadian artists, and a signature luxury raffle item donated by renowned jewelry brand David Yurman. To purchase tickets and find out more information, please visit artsumbrella.com.