“The three-dimensional wall-mounted tableaux, Topographie aérienne du Moyen-Nord, site[s] no. 30 and 31, are largely fictional creations. They use recycled materials with a sublime sense of humour. The irony here, as with all of Corbeil’s sculptures, is that we have a sense that this civilization Corbeil is depicting is estranged from our own, yet resembles it a great deal. […] The bird (complete with beating wings) of almost folkloric construction, the copper fan propellers embedded in the landscape, and even the transparent plastic that blows ever so listlessly, all suggest a civilization far advanced from our own, but one that could likewise be ours.”
John K. Grande, “Les ironies gonflables de Daniel Corbeil,” in Nacelle en perspectives, exhibition brochure, Expression, Centre d’exposition de Saint-Hyacinthe, 2002.
