/ Archéologies chromatiques: la forêt

2012

inkjet on photopaper

J'ai passé plusieurs jours dans la forêt boréale au nord de la ville de Hearst, en Ontario. J'ai documenté ses couleurs. Est-ce que les bucherons d'autrefois qui passaient des saisons entières dans ces bois trouvaient de la beauté dans cette forêt qu'ils exploitaient?

Chromatic Archaeologies: The Forest was completed in a forest in Northern Ontario located approximately 10 km north of my lumberjack birthtown of Hearst

I spent several days walking through this forest in late September 2012, observing the colours of its leaves, needles, trunks, mosses, lichen, fungi and dirt. I collected digital samples of these colours using a camera, out of focus and with motion blur to eliminate detail while preserving hue. After a few days, I had 269 usable samples.

I printed each sample directly from the camera at a size of 2x3" on sheets of 4x6" photographic paper.

I then ordered the samples according to their relative positions on the visible light spectrum and installed them in a rectangular grid on the gallery wall.

I'm interested in the limits of this scientific process. Can a place, like a forest, be reduced to the sum of its colours? Did the lumberjacks who exploited this forest find it beautiful?