Christian Messier is a young performance artist whose work follows in the rich tradition of Body Art, to which he adds his own distinctive contribution. His purposefully risk-taking actions place his body in situations in which it is pushed to the limits, limits which Messier persists in transgressing. Messier has exposed himself to intense cold, has spend three months with his eyes blindfold, or has locked himself for days into a small wooden box. Yet his work is not interested in pain or punishment, the aim is rather to regain the body as a site for experience, and, above all, as a site for art. Messier uses his body as one would a separate, external material. His performance work is marked by strong formal preoccupations and a great concern for its visual, even geometric, qualities. The durational aspect of Messier’s pieces – often lasting a day or more – not only tests endurance but, more importantly, allows for the sculptural properties of the work to emerge. The results are sometimes still, sometimes vehement, but always intense and emotionally touching performances. They frequently feature the artist’s family, either indirectly, by devising an action around the family dining table, for example, or directly, by including family members themselves in a performance. Other elements that occur regularly in Messier’s work are plaster, which he uses to cover his body, wooden boxes, blindfolds, and, of course, the body itself.
This young artist has only been making work for a few years, but has already performed many actions in a wide range of contexts, including performance festivals and gatherings in Québec, including ‘Jeune Performance’ (2001), ‘Arts d'attitude’ (2001), and ‘Rencontre internationale d’art performance’ (2000,2002), as well as, more recently, events in Zagreb, Paris and Australia.

For RWHNT, Messier has proposed a durational performance which will further the central preoccupations of his practice: the body and its experiential and formal possibilities.