Josée Pedneault

Talle, 2024

TALLE

Installation, photography, light, fabric, wood

Presented at Centre SAGAMIE, Alma, 2024

The blueberries were fully ripe. In the burnt lands the purple of the clusters and the green of the leaves now overcame the paling rose of the laurels. […] The noise of footsteps on dry twigs, of rustling in the alder bushes, […] all faded slowly into the distance, and about each gatherer was only the buzzing of flies drunk with sunshine, and the voice of the wind in the young birches and aspens.

(Louis Hémon, Maria Chapdelaine, 1916. Translation W. H. Blake)

Talle is a colloquial French expression designating places where wild fruits grow in abundance; these spots are cherished secrets, jealously guarded, their locations shared among those in the know with the utmost discretion. Josée Pedneault's photographic installation, Talle, transports us to the heart of the Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean region during the seasonal harvest of wild fruits. The artist's lens does more than document the landscape; it reveals intimate realms the viewer is invited to navigate. Here, one wanders amidst moss, lichen, and ancient roots, bathed in dappled light that flickers through tall grasses and into the shady depths of the undergrowth. The installation is comprised of photographs that depart from the conventional flatness of the medium and assume a sculptural form, resting on the earth from which their subjects sprung. Each picture is a luminous portal, inviting visitors to re-experience the forest as a place of wonder. While evoking a return to our elemental beginnings, the act of foraging for wild fruits also hints at a fragile future full of uncertainties. The exhibition challenges us to rethink how we connect and inhabit the world. It takes us on a quest for the re-enchantment of nature in which the Earth becomes a living organism to which we belong.

Project in partnership with Rencontres de la photographie en Gaspésie and with the support of Loto-Québec