La trame d’Ariane
Site-specific work
with the theme “The biodiversity”
Art-nature symposium Pierre qui Roule, 2009
Saint André-Avellin.

Paradoxically, it would seem, reflection on biodiversity leads us back to the notion of unicity. Following the vital thread (the “fil d’Ariane”) running through genetics would likely direct our steps back toward the one cell from which life originated. In La Trame d’Ariane, I am exploring this paradox of unicity and diversity, and its corollary, fragility and longevity.
Placed in the hand of a majestic cedar, a tree long associated with immortality, great ethereal and metaphorical eggs pile up to some four meters in height to suggest both individual fragility and life’s self-generative strength. The eight eggs symbolize the infinite asymptote of biodiversity. They connect the animal world (by their form) with the plant world (by their material), thus signifying the interdependence of the two realms, while the age-old technique employed in their making underscores life’s ecosystemic dependence on the patterns of adaptability developed since its emergence on our planet.
That thread of Ariadne’s that traverses them takes the form of a long, wide ribbon running through the eggs, tracing the evolving course that interconnects every one of life’s manifestations. Composed of natural materials, both terrestrial and marine, in a variety of textures and chromatic nuances, this genetic ribbon creates various sinuosities within each of the fragile shells. In the colours of humanity—yellow, black, red, white—, four amalgams of charcoal, spruce resin, and beeswax are distributed on the thread, like sealed packets enclosing traces of man’s efforts in the evolution of biodiversity.
Like life itself, weathering adversities and the passage of time, La Trame d’Ariane is a discreet and complex work, aesthetically and physically integrated with its environment, and offering a multiplicity of evolving discourses on the theme of biodiversity.

Photografic credits: Gracieuseté de Nathalie Levasseur