Wohhoh Henry !
For Wohhoh Henry!, François Rioux make is a series of performative presences on the snowmobile trails and shelters of Laval, donning a custom-made winter suit—based on a cross between a Yeti and a house fly. The seasonal project conclude itself with a winter event during which the artist tells the tale of his encounters on the trail.
For Henry, the idea of an ephemeral trail sounds very romantic, ooooh yeah! And while we’re at it, the idea of slipping into a special outfit to explore the Laval landscape tickles his otherwise shaky determination1. What a strange desire to swap the hardness of concrete for the fragile, icy crust of the trail.
One thing’s for sure, it would be a lot easier to follow the forested trails and roadside paths aboard a snowmobile. But of course, the other Henrys of this world made it clear he couldn’t possibly gallivant on that kind of machine wearing such an unsafe snow suit!
Wohhoh Henry! literally folunges2 into winter in an attempt to punctuate this endless season with an increasingly thin layers of felt: sort of half melted and blackened by carburetor exhaust.
An invitation to forget winter by contributing to the warming of our own climactic suit… the smell of exhaust should do the rest.
1 Possibly due to his heavy settler baggage.
2 The verb folunge is an invented term that means to plunge with a dash of folly!
