The Promise (model)
1997
competition work not accepted, integration of arts to architecture program for the Pavillon J-A De Sève, UQAM, Montreal (Quebec, Canada)
Institutions, like trees, need a certain amount of time before they bear fruit.
I introduce into my work objects that I gather according to various constraints I set for myself. I don’t try to conceal the source of these objects, but rather to give them new resonance by perverting their original function and deforming their established scale. I am also concerned with the idea of creating work which plays with the ambiguity of the limits of the space and the object, of the intangible and the concrete. For the J.-A. De Sève public square, a unique harvest will give soul to the monumental work I am proposing. In late May and early June, I will dig up an apple tree in flower on Île d’Orléans. The tree will be transported to my studio, where it will be pressed as for a herbarium. The flowers, leaves and branches will thus be suspended in time.
The three-dimensional tree will be transformed into a sole plane, from a tree-sculpture to a tree-picture. Like a jigsaw puzzle, the flattened apple tree will be made up of some 200 elements, which will be assembled to recreate its image. Each section of the herbarium apple tree will be preserved by enclosing it in transparent acrylic. With this technique, the tree will appear to levitate above a two-dimensional colander. The result will be an immense apple tree in constant flower, summer and winter, planted in the heart of downtown Montreal. When night falls, the apple tree in the giant colander will appear to be awakened by the lighting. The light will produce a mirage effect out of which a fabulous plant will be born.
Diane Landry, May 1997