We are proud to announce the recipients of the first two prizes of the 2021 Art Contest by the Canadian Research Initiative in Substance Misuse (CRISM) and the Association québécoise pour la promotion de la santé des personnes utilisatrices de drogues (AQPSUD) [Quebec Association for Drug User Health Promotion]: Jessica Tremblay and Mossi.
This competition, launched in the Fall of 2021, aims to highlight the creativity of people with lived experience with drug use, sex work, and/or homelessness or people who work with or who are challenged by these experiences.
The contest jury received a multitude of works that fell under the theme: resilience. The selected works will be displayed on the communication platforms of addiction medicine research labs and the other works received may appear in the L’injecteur magazine. We would like to thank all the artists who participated in the first edition of the Art Contest. The selection process proved to be difficult given the talent and the quality of the artwork received.
This research and community initiative is a fine example of the importance of committed and inclusive collaboration of people with lived experience.
The Artists & their Works
Name of Artwork : Flowering
Name of Artwork: Thébaïde
Medium: Photography / Collage
Medium: Acrylic on canvas
I am one of those who took more than one bullet and hid my wounds. Keeping my wounds to myself, my sufferings, my anger and my frustrations, I started working on identity and I accepted to be photographed and dared to show myself. I realised that the pose I had made revealed my discomfort. I was hiding … although, I had agreed to have my picture taken! While trying to hide, I didn’t realise how obvious my need to hide was. By multiplying this photo and deciding to place it in circles, unconsciously I had just showed that I was going around in circles trying to hide who I am.
This work of art is for me a biography of myself. It signifies passion and the pain of sorrows. It means more than that, based on my personal experience, having had a lot of trauma. This work is the means that I put in place to evacuate this suffering. It also signifies the power to arrange everything, by yourself, by opening the mind and opening up to the possibilities of life.
”’What does your piece mean?”
The Finalists
Medium: Acrylic on canvas
Medium: Felt tip pen
Medium: Watercolour
The invisible book
Ideal portrait of perfection, destroyed through years of toxic decay, a lost soul.
Koi fish are resilient fish because they swim against the current.
Any use or reproduction of the art work is prohibited without prior authorisation of CRISM-ICRAS.
Collaborator
