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Interview: Light and Matter |
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Artist Marie-Jeanne Musiol discusses plants, thought and energy
by Hana Askren
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Left: Oak leaf attacked by insects and partially dried out.
Right: Same leaf, magnetized for a few minutes by imposition of the hands. Electromagnetic photograph, 2001.
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Photo: Capillaire/Adiantum/Maidenhair fern. Electromagnetic photograph, 2005.
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Photo: Mirrors of the Cosmos no. 16. Electromagnetic photograph, 2006.
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Photo: Mirrors of the Cosmos no. 9. Electromagnetic photograph, 2006.
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Photos by Marie-Jeanne Musiol
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Marie-Jeanne Musiol has shown her work in Montreal galleries since 1985. A member of the editorial board of CV Photo magazine, she is also on the board of the Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec. Her electromagnetic photographs of plants reveal them as patterned mirrors of the cosmos, changing reflections of energy and reactive organisms. She has exhibited at the Montreal Botanical Gardens, and her work can be seen periodically at the Pierre-François Ouellette Gallery.
Montréal Magazine: Why do you choose to work with plants?
Marie-Jeanne Musiol: I work with plants because they offer millions of variations of light patterns. Each species has a unique light corona, and each individual plant also has a unique corona. And since plants are extremely reactive, the corona will show up differently when the plant is handled. These variations provide a great repertoire of forms and images.
MM: How did you choose this type of photography?
MJM: Electromagnetic photography is very accurate and very sensitive. If you take any biological body - a leaf, a plant, a person, even water - it will react in the electromagnetic field and show up in the photograph as a light field. The reaction is always specific, meaning that the various influences on the actual situation of the leaf can change the field. The field will reflect the state of the subject of the photograph.
MM: You seem to be very interested in interactions between human beings and plants. How did you make that connection?
MJM: From what I see in the photos, the effect of human beings on plants is direct and instantaneous. The plant's capacity to react to a cut or a tear is intense - it shows up in the light field as a black hole. But when I heal the plant with my hands a few minutes afterward, the plant is restored to an extraordinarily luminous state.
The same thing happens with autumn leaves that have dried out. At first, the leaf's light field shows as a bare outline, but after I magnetize the leaf by touching it, it shows light inside and out. The interaction changes the plant's light structure. It also works without any touch at all, showing that pure thought can have an impact on the physical body of the leaf.
From what I see in the photos, the effect of human beings on plants is direct and instantaneous.
MM: Do you think plants could have a similar effect on human beings?
MJM: Perhaps. The plants are not solely reactive - the light field we're talking about is actually the interaction between the human and plant light fields. In science, we know that the observer is part of the observation and modifies it.
MM: Do you think your photographs point to a connection between science and art?
MJM: Science is a way of looking. Artists sometimes look in the same way as scientists, but the goal of their work is not always the same.
MM: What is your goal?
MJM: I'm interested in the boundaries between light and matter. I try to show how they interact, and how intimately linked they are. Theoretical physicists are finding that matter is not at all what we think it is, and by looking at these simple leaves, we can already sense it.
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