Birds of Prey, Exhibition view, Galerie Jano, Montréal, December 4, 2024 - January 19 2025. Photos: Mike Patten. The book: Birds of Prey is inspired by the book Birds of America by J.J. Audubon. The illustrations here presents drones with birds behavior occupying the future sky .
Birds of Prey | What The Future Leaves Behind, exhibition view, Stamps Gallery, Ann Arbor, MI. March 15- April 13, 2024.
Photo credit: Ben Zink.
Mutations can occur naturally and create unexpected results. This exhibition uses dark speculative paleontology to imagine a future branch in the tree of life–one where biological specimens and man-made machinery have merged into a new, hybrid species. This work is made from the perspective of a far-future paleontologist who has discovered the remains of these creatures–part bird, part drone–and must untangle the troubling legacy of militarism and genetic engineering in our current time.
Birds of Prey | What The Future Leaves Behind, exhibition view, Stamps Gallery, Ann Arbor, MI. March 15- April 13, 2024.
Photo credit: Ben Zink.
Mutations can occur naturally and create unexpected results. This exhibition uses dark speculative paleontology to imagine a future branch in the tree of life–one where biological specimens and man-made machinery have merged into a new, hybrid species. This work is made from the perspective of a far-future paleontologist who has discovered the remains of these creatures–part bird, part drone–and must untangle the troubling legacy of militarism and genetic engineering in our current time.
Once Upon A Time In the Far Future, 2024, puppet book performance, 17 minutes. Photo credit: Krista Sheneman
Video link.
In a speculative art world, where synthetic biologists have made a synthetic life possible. The puppet performance takes us into a journey through future moments in time from the found remnants of the hybrid objects/species, going backwards until their origin in a laboratory.
This story includes eight pages or chapters, each offering a different perspective on a moment in time. It starts from a far future point of view, with the silhouette of a paleo mystic biologist astronaut who finds remnants in the soil and reflects on her findings. Then the climate accompanied by spectrograph video images speaks about his temper. In the third page, we hear multiple grains of sand talking about what they were (a bunker or a skyscraper); followed by bones trying to remember who they were. The fifth chapter takes the voices of objects/species deployed in nature who now have their own agency. The sixth chapter presents war generals deploying insects as bio weapons. Following the generals, tired animals in the lab talk about their treatment and how they are poked at constantly. The final page presents a white pristine lab with no windows where a scientist is confident about the benefits of his research.
During the performance, Conner Singh Vander Beek played the gamelan to create a sound atmosphere. Abigail Lowe and Leah Crosby narrated the story and performed the characters. Stéphanie Morissette manipulated the book. Once the book is closed, lights go down and sounds of birds can be heard as if we had reached the era before bio manipulation. Filmed and performed at the Duderstadt video studio, Ann Arbor, Michigan.
Video link.
In a speculative art world, where synthetic biologists have made a synthetic life possible. The puppet performance takes us into a journey through future moments in time from the found remnants of the hybrid objects/species, going backwards until their origin in a laboratory.
This story includes eight pages or chapters, each offering a different perspective on a moment in time. It starts from a far future point of view, with the silhouette of a paleo mystic biologist astronaut who finds remnants in the soil and reflects on her findings. Then the climate accompanied by spectrograph video images speaks about his temper. In the third page, we hear multiple grains of sand talking about what they were (a bunker or a skyscraper); followed by bones trying to remember who they were. The fifth chapter takes the voices of objects/species deployed in nature who now have their own agency. The sixth chapter presents war generals deploying insects as bio weapons. Following the generals, tired animals in the lab talk about their treatment and how they are poked at constantly. The final page presents a white pristine lab with no windows where a scientist is confident about the benefits of his research.
During the performance, Conner Singh Vander Beek played the gamelan to create a sound atmosphere. Abigail Lowe and Leah Crosby narrated the story and performed the characters. Stéphanie Morissette manipulated the book. Once the book is closed, lights go down and sounds of birds can be heard as if we had reached the era before bio manipulation. Filmed and performed at the Duderstadt video studio, Ann Arbor, Michigan.
Dialogue, 2023, paper installation inside a studio, Ann Arbor, MI, USA.
What if vegetation or animal fur/feathers was colonizing human spaces?
What if vegetation or animal fur/feathers was colonizing human spaces?
Recent work, 2022-2023. Photo credit: Ben Zink.
Drone/Birds series and Bio-Military objects series.
Drone/Birds series and Bio-Military objects series.
Black Lake, 2020-2023, 12 minutes experimental documentary and photos. The point of view of nature on this transformed territory with testimonies of people who remembers the lake. The Black Lake is located in the unceded territory of w8banaki Nation, the Ndakinna, in a city now known as Thetford Mines, Québec, Canada.
Film 1 min preview: https://vimeo.com/895918492
Image & video sources: Stéphanie Morissette, Pierre-Jean Moreau and Centre d'archives de la région de Thetford.
Director: Stéphanie Morissette; Drone images: Pierre-Jean Moreau; Sound & mix audio: Dale Einarson; Counter bass: Benoît Converset; Piano: Roland Favre.
Photos: Printed on Somerset paper, 81.5 x 112 cm (33.5 x 44 inches).
Audio testimonies: Louise Landry, Pauline Laflamme, Sarto Morissette, Réjeanne Laflamme, Michel Morissette.
The artist aknowledge the financial support of the Canada Council for the Arts for this project and wishes to thank Granilake for their collaboration.
This exhibition was presented from June 8th to October 7 2024 at the Centre historique de la mine King KB3 au Minéro Musée de Thetford: https://museeminero.com/expositions/lacnoir/
and was presented at Espace Virtuel with the Bang Centre in Saguenay, Qc. February 29 - April 27 2024.
Film 1 min preview: https://vimeo.com/895918492
Image & video sources: Stéphanie Morissette, Pierre-Jean Moreau and Centre d'archives de la région de Thetford.
Director: Stéphanie Morissette; Drone images: Pierre-Jean Moreau; Sound & mix audio: Dale Einarson; Counter bass: Benoît Converset; Piano: Roland Favre.
Photos: Printed on Somerset paper, 81.5 x 112 cm (33.5 x 44 inches).
Audio testimonies: Louise Landry, Pauline Laflamme, Sarto Morissette, Réjeanne Laflamme, Michel Morissette.
The artist aknowledge the financial support of the Canada Council for the Arts for this project and wishes to thank Granilake for their collaboration.
This exhibition was presented from June 8th to October 7 2024 at the Centre historique de la mine King KB3 au Minéro Musée de Thetford: https://museeminero.com/expositions/lacnoir/
and was presented at Espace Virtuel with the Bang Centre in Saguenay, Qc. February 29 - April 27 2024.
Epigenetics of Mechanical Objects, 2020, a web dendrogram like a phylogenetic tree. In a near future, animal and plant species are imagined to have crossed their genes with technologies. This diagram made of drawings representing those crossed specimens, is accompanied by a text where a scientist from the future studies this evolution from 2019 to 2092. dendrogramme.stephaniemorissette.com
Project made in collaboration with the Hub numérique de l'Estrie, the author Pattie O'Green and The Canada Council for the Arts.
Project made in collaboration with the Hub numérique de l'Estrie, the author Pattie O'Green and The Canada Council for the Arts.