A grid of 18 conifer trunks, cast in heavy-set concrete piers, are placed in the waters of Bassin Louise, in old port Quebec City.
The installation is centered within the basin and framed by the wharf and the passerelle. Arranged in staggered rows spaced 5m to 7m apart on-center, towering at 15 to 20m tall above current water levels, the grove stands against the backdrop of Old Quebec and the city beyond. The materials reference the region’s role in North American land expansion - first as a port city in the 1600s and then in the 1800s as a hub for lumber.
Materiality also plays on the unique L’habitant identity of New France settlers, something that remains a point of pride for Quebecers to this day. The aesthetics of the installation references the phenomenon of “Ghost Forests” that have become a leading indicator for sea level rise along other North American coastal regions. This installation aims to tie Quebec’s cultural legacy to the abstraction of climate change elsewhere, using Quebec’s own vernacular materiality and aesthetics.
