Museum explores wood from cradle to coffin

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This article was published 10/08/2011 (5218 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

There’s something about wood that speaks to Pierette Boily.

Boily, the curator at the Saint-Boniface Museum, said she prefers the material to plastic, or even metal, which she says can seem “cold.”

“Wood has always retained its warmth,” she explains.

It’s that fascination that led Boily to create the museum’s newest exhibit, From Cradle To Coffin.

The exhibit, which opened in June, displays handmade wood artifacts from the museum’s collection.
The titular crib was carved in 1926 by Adonaï Bernardin for his young daughter, who suffered from hydrocephalus, a buildup of fluid inside the skull.

The coffin — located in another part of the museum — is that of Louis Riel.

The items in between tell their own stories of lives lived, from the mundane (rocking chairs, cribs) to the useful (sleighs, crutches and rolling pins) and the artistic (carvings and musical instruments).

The museum’s director, Philippe Mailhot, said if it weren’t for special exhibit such as From Cradle To Coffin, many of the  30,000 artifacts in the museum’s collection would never see the light of day.

Only about a tenth of the museum’s collection is on permanent display.

“Exhibitions like this one allow the museum to show the depths of our collection,” Mailhot said.

Boily added the museum is the perfect setting for an exhibit focusing on wood, considering its home — the oldest still-standing building in Winnipeg — is a prime example of the Red River frame construction,  which utilized wood.

One of Boily’s favourite pieces in the exhibit is a small carving,  about 15 centimetres high, of a tower encasing wooden spheres that are completely separate from their prison.

The tower was carved from a single piece of wood by Napoléon Boulet. Boily said the carving tells something about the kind of person its maker was.

“It’s very simple in its approach, but it shows his patience and his talent.”

And while Boily  agrees the exhibit is a good way to show off some of the diversity of the museum’s large collection, she also hopes visitors take away some meaning from the exhibit.

“I think the most important message I’d like (visitors) to retain is that people used to be self-sufficient.

People used to make what they needed,” she explained, adding that changed as careers became more specialized. “Most people wouldn’t be able to put together a chair (today).”

She also hopes people may see an environmental theme to the exhibit.

“It’s contemporary in the way that we wonder what’s going to happen to our forests, our trees,” she said.

“I hope people will recognize . . . that our forests are important. Look at all they’ve made over hundreds of years.”

From Cradle to Coffin is on display at the Saint-Boniface Museum, located at 494 Taché Ave.
For more information, visit msbm.mb.ca or call 237-4500.

arielle.godbout@canstarnews.com