Stroke of Midnight 

Curator: Today, we’re looking at Sarah Joncas' work, "Stroke of Midnight", an acrylic painting that invites a very specific reaction from me. Editor: My immediate impression is… unease. There’s a stillness to the figure, but something’s clearly amiss. The lipstick is smudged; it’s heavy with suggestion. Curator: Right, and Joncas constructs this through a clear dialogue with visual codes we might recognize from both contemporary and historical depictions of women in distress. The subject, with her flowing hair and porcelain skin, evokes pre-Raphaelite aesthetics, yet there’s this postmodern, almost unsettling, edge to her vulnerability. Editor: That flow of hair–the sheer quantity of it almost obscures the tiled floor. You begin to wonder how deliberate it is as a tool. Does this choice represent a break in her reality, like spilled ink? I'm thinking, too, about the material process behind rendering that texture. The patience and detail needed... it is extraordinary, when juxtaposed with the suggestion of some kind of collapse or impulsive act. Curator: And it makes you think, doesn't it? This tension plays out as the artwork reveals how constructions of femininity often collapse under the weight of imposed ideals. This “midnight” perhaps signals a breaking point. The application of makeup—usually for presentation and performed beauty— is literally smeared, signaling not just a slip, but an undoing. It forces us to question these standards and what happens when they become unbearable. Editor: Precisely, that undoing interests me–and the work it would have taken to apply the medium in such a convincing, visually pleasing manner, too. The tiles beneath suggest both an interior space, and also a sense of the mundane, really heightening the sense of disquiet. One questions whether it signals the labor, domestic, or the labour behind this carefully performed persona. Curator: Agreed. The “Stroke of Midnight” presents an interrogation of contemporary feminine identity and what we expect from representations of women's experiences, and makes it abundantly clear those expectations can exact a tremendous cost. Editor: Yes, Joncas’ piece lingers precisely because it captures not just a state of vulnerability but implicates us in that moment of exposure through the skill of rendering.