Smack Mellon is pleased to present Janet Biggs and Aude Moreau as part of Brooklyn / Montréal, a contemporary art event with the aim of establishing a cultural exchange between 2 cities, 16 institutions and 40 artists. This is the first major artistic and cultural encounter between Montréal and New York City in over 10 years. In connection with Brooklyn / Montréal, Smack Mellon is partnered with The Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal, where French-born Montréal artist Aude Moreau and Brooklyn based artist Janet Biggs presented new video projects from October 4, 2012 to January 6, 2013.

For this iteration of the exchange, Janet Biggs will be screening her latest video project Somewhere Beyond Nowhere, a two-channel video installation filmed during Biggs’ expedition with The Arctic Circle program. Aboard a hundred-year-old ice-class Schooner sailing vessel with other scientists and artists participating in the program, the group started at Longyearbyen, an international territory of Svalbard just 12 degrees from the North Pole and headed as far north as the pack ice would allow them. Biggs, armed with a flare gun and camera, traveled alone onto a glacial island and filmed herself engulfed within the stark and extreme environment.

In contrast to Biggs’ expansive landscape, Aude Moreau’s large-scale installation Sugar Carpet blocks out the majority of the gallery restricting visitors to the perimeter of the space. The delicate installation is comprised of 2 tons of refined white sugar meticulously spread into an oversized carpet embellished with Persian rug motifs. Referring to domestic comfort, the use of refined sugar within the gallery’s industrial space also spotlights the undervalued process of production and its often overlooked violent history.