Art Competition: Resilience
Led by Dr. Didier Jutras-Aswad, M.D., M.Sc., the CRISM Quebec Node is housed within the CHUM Research Centre in Montréal. It benefits from an accessible, state-of-the-art, and agile research environment that fosters innovation, collaboration, and research excellence.
It is with great enthusiasm and gratitude that we unveil the recipients of the two first prizes of the 2021 Art Competition organized by CRISM and AQPSUD: Jessica Tremblay and Mossi.
Launched in the fall of 2021, this competition aims to highlight the creativity of people with lived experience of drug use, sex work, and/or homelessness, as well as people who work with or are personally connected to these experiences.
The competition jury received a wide range of submissions exploring the theme of resilience. The selected works will be featured on the communication platforms of addiction medicine research laboratories, while other submissions may be featured in the L’injecteur newspaper. We extend our sincere thanks to all the artists who took part in this inaugural competition. The selection process was a difficult one, given the talent and quality demonstrated throughout the submissions.
This research-community initiative is a meaningful example of the importance of engaged and inclusive collaboration with people with lived experience.
Mossi
FloraisonPhotography/collage
I am one of those who have taken more than one bullet and hidden their wounds. Keep my wounds, my pain, my anger, and my frustrations for myself. I had begun a journey of self-discovery and agreed to have my photograph taken—to dare to show myself. I realized that the pose I had taken revealed my discomfort. I was hiding… paradoxically, I had agreed to have my photograph taken! As I tried to hide myself, I did not realize just how visible my need to hide was. By multiplying the photograph and deciding to arrange the images in a circle, I was unconsciously representing the fact that I keep going around in circles, trying to hide who I am.
Jessica Tremblay
ThébaïdeAcrylic on canvas
This work of art is, for me, an autobiography. It represents passion and the pain of suffering. Beyond that, it reflects my personal experience and the many traumas I have endured. This artwork is the means I have found to release and express that pain. It also represents the power to put things back together on your own, by opening your mind and embracing the possibilities that life has to offer.
Tremblay
Amir
An ideal portrait of perfection, destroyed through years of toxic decline, a lost soul.Marker pen
Mathieu Rioux
The Invisible BookAcrylic on canvas
Anne A.
The koi fish is a resilient fish because it swims against the current.Watercolour
