Joan Sullivan – This Artist is on Fire!
“Si j’étais un arbre” (If I were a tree) is the title of Heritage Board Director Joan Sullivan’s new solo installation of photographic sculptures of Quebec’s historic 2023 forest fires. The exposition runs from November 14 to December 20 at the Galerie d’art Léonard Parent, 186 Av. de la Cathédrale, in Rimouski. This new series of abstract photographs actually began in 2020 during Australia’s catastrophic “Black Summer” fires, which killed an estimated three billion non-human beings according to scientists. Three years later, Quebec experienced its own “black summer”: more than 700 fires burned 4.5 million forest hectares in 2023. A devastating record for our province. Rather than use her camera in a traditional manner to document the hottest year ever recorded in human history, Joan decided to give voice to Canada’s threatened boreal forest. Through embodiment, she tries to imagine what the trees must feel as the flames arrive; what they might want to tell us before they die. By moving her body in an agitated manner, Joan “becomes” a tree on fire – by mimicry, by artivism – as a way to perceive climate change from a new perspective: that of our fellow nonhuman beings with whom we share this magnificent planet. Joan’s imaginary photos of trees “on fire” were all taken in the Lower Saint Lawrence region. Even if our region was not directly affected by the 2023 fires, Joan acknowledges that we all looked anxiously at the orange sky on the other side of the Saint Lawrence last summer. We all breathed its toxic vapours with the anxious thought that next year might be our turn. For the opening – scheduled on Saturday 16 November from 13h-15h – Joan commissioned former Heritage Board Director James Darling to compose original music for solo cello that evokes a forest fire. James will perform his composition live during the opening. Not to be missed! The event is free. Joan Sullivan received a Research and Creation grant from the Canada Council for the Arts for “Si j’étais un arbre.” Joan has three other art projects in the works for 2025. Stay tuned! Details to come in an upcoming newsletter. Two photos from “Si j’étais un arbre”
