Polka dot Dragon Lantern Festival – Labo Créatif
For three consecutive years, I collaborated with the collective Labo Créatif — a group that meets at Association francophone des Kootenays de l’Ouest (AFKO)— to produce luminous works for the Polka Dot Dragon Lantern Festival in Nelson
2024 project took the form of a large, freestanding rectangular lantern composed of vibrant, colorful panels. We developed a simple, open form that could stand independently while allowing each artist to create a distinct image within a shared framework. This approach supported both collective cohesion and individual authorship.
A large open book was placed on top of the lantern at approximately table height. The inclusion was building on imagery that had already appeared in earlier collaborative works within the group. Positioned as both object and symbol, the book functions as a source of knowledge, storytelling, and transmission.
Collaborators: Véronique Trudel, Louise Hardy et Laetitia Crouzet
Cardboard, translucent coloured plastic, Paper, light.
2024
This was the first iteration of this installation, which then went on to Nuit Blanche Kelowna the following year. It consisted of multiple books — some folded, some stacked — arranged in small groupings and interspersed with origami frogs and water lily leaves. These elements formed clusters that visually suggested a creeping or vine-like plant spreading across the space.
Conceptually, the work explored the movement and transmission of stories: ideas emerging from people’s minds, entering books, and then circulating outward, multiplying as they are shared. The vine-like arrangement functioned as a metaphor for this exponential propagation of narratives across time, bodies, and communities.
Collaborators: Véronique Trudel, Louise Hardy et Lyne Chartier
Paper, cardboard, lights
2022
During the second year of the Polkadot Dragon Festival, the Labo Créatif created a papier-mâché octopus installation. The finished work appeared as if a giant sea creature were surfacing beneath the beach — purple and turquoise tentacles twisting upward from the sand. Part sculpture, part illusion, the piece invited viewers to imagine the hidden body of the creature below, transforming the landscape into a playful scene of myth and emergence.
Collaborators: Véronique Trudel, Louise Hardy
Papier maché
2023
Image by Bob Hardy a.k.a treborydrah