Deconstruction

Deconstruction is a meditation on how we come to know, love, and remember — through the textures of the natural world and the quiet act of observation.

Through the gathering of source materials and visual documentation on a farmland in St. Joseph-du-Lac, Quebec, I began to explore deconstruction — both as a process of understanding the natural world and as a metaphor for self-inquiry. Walking the land, I let intuition guide my attention toward textures, species, and forms. What emerged was a quiet conversation between outer observation and inner reflection.

My research centered on a visual and tactile study of natural materials: the pigmentations etched into weathered wood, the sediment patterns in glaciomarine wild clay, and the shifting states of aging apples native to the region. As I photographed the Oiase apples, I noticed how they withered and released fluid, becoming both swollen and disfigured — yet strangely more expressive. In their decay, I found poetry. Their transformation mirrored emotional cycles I often struggle to articulate.

I worked with Staghorn Sumac, processing it into spice and exploring its materiality. With the foraged wood logs, I used photography as a tool of close study — reimagining them as sculptural forms shaped by time and pressure. Aspen bark revealed delicate variations in character and texture; I framed each piece to highlight its individuality while holding space for the multiplicity within a single tree.

The wild berry vines stood out to me for their duality — fragile yet persistent in how they twisted around other materials. They felt like a metaphor for endurance in the face of entanglement. I also experimented with foraged Leda clay, shaped and fired with mixed wood ash, revealing the embedded remnants of seashells and sediment. The unpredictability of the results reflected the emotional texture of the work itself.

In bringing these materials together, I sought to express a nature that is diverse, unstable, and alive — and to reflect on how closely this mirrors the mental and emotional landscapes we carry. This project became a personal process of slowing down, paying attention, and allowing nature’s transformations to guide my own.