CHLOROTICA

Collaborative project with Rili Kajiyama and Mey-Lynn Dichant, video, v-jing, performance, screen printing, and music creation, February–April 2025.

Continuing to explore the relationship between humans and nature, we turned our attention to the toxic green algae found in Brittany. The proliferation of these algae is due to the waste from pigs raised in factory farms, which is dumped en masse into waterways. As it decomposes on beaches, it releases a deadly gas. We explored the tensions surrounding this subject through several media, including this video made with a dancer, conveying the slowness and latent threat of this living matter through the encounter between humans and algae.

In a second phase, we created screen prints based on photos we had taken of textures and shapes found in living organisms that interact with this relationship between nature and toxicity. We also printed the sea slug Elysia Chlorotica—capable of photosynthesis thanks to its algae-based diet—on fabric, which gave the project its name. This medium allowed us to visually explore the ambivalence between vitality and poison, using contrasts between fluorescent colors, phosphorescent inks, which are very artificial, and more natural tones.

Finally, in this third act of the project, humans merge completely with the algae. Through live video projections, each of their movements directly influences the shape of the algae, until all distinction between the two entities is erased. This final performative phase reveals a symbiotic relationship, where the boundaries between organic matter and the human body become blurred.