Housewarming - An Exhibition by Karine Giboulo

Blog 16

Last weekend, I visited Karine Giboulo’s Housewarming exhibition at the Gardiner Museum in Toronto with my husband and our daughter. We were fortunate to get a tour guide to give us deeper information about the art.


Housewarming means you invite family and friends to show them your new home. In Germany, it is customary to bring bread and salt for good fortune for the hosts and their homes. Bread is a staple food, and salt is a formerly expensive mineral used as a preservative.


Karine Giboulo, a sculptor from Montreal, created more than 500 miniature polymer-clay figures during the COVID pandemic. She displays our living conditions during isolation with insecurity about food supplies and the battle against the disease.


The installation at the Gardiner Museum resembles a home inspired by the artist's residence with a kitchen, pantry, living room, bedroom, bathroom, playroom and garden.


In each area, the figures tell stories, some closely related to Karine Giboulo's experiences during physical isolation. The confinement was even worse for her because she had just been diagnosed with a restricting illness. Suffering from mobility loss and pain during sleepless nights caused her to feel like a young person caged in an old body.


The artist portrays the limitations of our daily lives during the pandemic. She also critiques our consumerism, showing the impact of human activity on nature, visible in pollution, destruction of habitats, and climate change. Her observations offer lots of thought-provoking reflections on our actions.


You can visit the Housewarming exhibition until May 7, 2023.


To see some of the art, check out this YouTube video: https://youtu.be/0tCEzvaU9h4.