On September 8, 2021, TOPO relaunched its window exhibition program with a new thematic cycle on the theme of fluidity. Rimouski artist Fernande Forest exhibited her project until October 23. Fantasmagorie de semences potagères, an audiovisual exploration magnified by the very nature of three seeds: onion, cabbage, and salsify.
Following research work in a microscopy laboratory, Fernande Forest explored the invisible part of vegetable seeds from old varieties. This resulted in a large body of photographic work using three devices: a binocular microscope equipped with a reflex camera, a scanning electron microscope where the grayscale image is obtained through the interaction between electrons and matter, and a digitizer where the seeds were scanned after germinating in the studio.
Each of these tools colors the landscape revealed by the seeds with its specific properties. We discover the topography of the infinitely small: a unique morphology composed of organized and complex microstructures. From these photographs, the artist has generated a process of transformation using image technologies to reveal the digital microstructures. These “pixeldelic” digital entities and the actual photographs make up the material for this video, produced with the support of videographer Cynthia Naggard and music by composers Éric Normand and Clarisse Bériault.
I found you lying on the ground, the remains of your life beside you, broken, in tatters.
You were there, tiny, almost invisible, deprived of water, drenched in sunshine.
I took you in and wanted to learn from your body. I observed you, scrutinized you, changed you.
And then I dreamed of this phantasmagoria, where, like a ghost from outer space, you floated,
transformed, dressed sometimes in a thousand colors, sometimes in black.Fascinated, I discovered your secret world.
A meticulous, complex, intelligent organization, dating back to the dawn of time.
And then, the data became partial,
everything faded away, leaving only colors, signs, symbols,
comme une trace fossile et tu disparaissais.In the morning, I laid you on the ground and covered you.
Much later, I saw life reappear.
In fact, your life was not limited to your current material appearance.
You were a future, a destiny, a cycle.
And this fertile cycle continues, fluid, eternal, inseparable from heaven and earth.
You are seed, spermaphyte, seed, capsule of life.– Fernande Forest
Fernande Forest
Born in Bonaventure in the Gaspé Peninsula, Fernande Forest lives in Rimouski in the Lower St. Lawrence region, where she has been practicing visual arts for over 30 years. Her research focuses on living things, mainly the plants she encounters in her everyday environment. Since her early days in photography, she has used a scanner as a macro camera, which recently led her to scientific microscopy. A graphic designer by training, she completed a graduate course in artistic practice studies.
She has held numerous solo and group exhibitions in Canada, France, and Poland. She has participated in symposiums and in situ creative events such as the Rencontre photographique du Kamouraska. A recipient of grants from the CALQ and the CAC, she also creates works as part of the policy of integrating art into architecture.
Her photographic practice creates connections between our relationship with plants, science, and our humanity by revealing reality and magnifying it. In her representations, she seeks to bring out, in a tangible way, the vital force that we all share. The force that drives all living organisms to flourish and evolve through the combinations, risks, and renewals that encounters bring about.
