I am Michèle Bygodt, a multidisciplinary artist exploring the relationship between perception, identity, and the shifting nature of reality.
My practice begins with a fascination for the moment when something familiar becomes uncertain. A reflection in water, a face, a landscape, or an everyday object can reveal different versions of itself depending on how we encounter it.
Through photography, image-making, and material experimentation, I explore how we perceive ourselves and the world around us. The self-portrait is often a starting point, but the investigation extends beyond the self, toward other people, places, and environments. Each image becomes a space of exchange between what is seen and what is felt, between the subject and the observer.
I am interested in the instability of images and identities: how they shift through memory, time, context, and relationship. A portrait is never only a record of a person; it is also a reflection of the relationship between the person being seen and the person looking.
My work questions the idea of a fixed reality. Instead, I explore reality as something continuously shaped through perception, really, something that changes depending on where we stand, what we carry, and how we choose to see.
Born in Libreville, Gabon, my perspective has been influenced by experiences of transition and adaptation. This informs my ongoing exploration of belonging, connection, and the many ways we understand ourselves through the world around us.
PUBLICATIONS
2021
Montecristo Magazine - Tracing Canada’s African Diaspora Through Art
The Georgia Straight - Sankofa: African Routes, Canadian Roots opens November 4 at the Museum of Anthropology at UBC
Ain’t Bad - Michèle Bygodt
Sad Magazine - Lost, Issue NO.31, June 2021
Wul Magazine - Gnoul Interview
Good Idea - This Is Golf, Phase 1.1, First Date
2022
The Gauntlet - Reflecting on The Bows’ Gnoul Exhibition: On police brutality and the experience of Blackness
Reissue - On visibility and the experience of Blackness // A reflection on Gnoul
PH Museum - 8 Black Female Photographers to Watch in 2022
EXHIBITIONS
2022
Maison Des Artistes Visuels Francophones, Winnipeg - Incarnation // Group exhibition
The Bows, Calgary - Gnoul: A Benefit Exhibition for the Family of Latjor Tuel // Solo exhibition
Virtual Exhibition - Something Inc Spaces extension // Group exhibition
2021
Gnoul, Telephone Gallery, Vancouver - December 2021 - early January // Solo exhibition
Museum of Anthropology at UBC - Sankofa, African Routes, Canadian Roots - Oct 14th, 2021 - Feb 28, 2022 // Group exhibition
Capture Festival, Vancouver - 2021 // Group exhibition
2020
Capture Festival, Vancouver - 2020 // Group exhibition
Michael O’Brian exhibit commons, Vancouver - We Are A Lighthouse // Group exhibition
2018
Michael O’Brian exhibit commons, Vancouver - TEDxECUAD Talk Equilibrium // Group exhibition