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Mon nom est Kassie Cornette, je suis née à Montréal le vendredi 13 mars 1981. Le jour de ma naissance est peut-être en lien avec ce penchant pour la catastrophe qui m’habite. Je n’ai jamais eu de talents exceptionnels mais j’ai, depuis très longtemps, l’impression d’avoir la capacité de voir des choses invisibles aux autres. J’ai toujours voulu voyager mais je n’ai jamais eu les moyens de le faire. J’ai donc décidé d’explorer mon propre territoire comme s’il était lointain et inconnu... »

At this moment before falling a sleep, in this transitional hypnotic state between reality and dream, I can see the Mutants. They are finally free. Humans are dead. The Mutants have found a substance that once mixed with plastic and metal is highly poisonous to humans, but it can turn any soulless object, thrown or not, into a conscious and alive creature, this within a few weeks. That’s how we slowly disappeared, infected by the radiation of objects. Its not a painful dead but its a surely effective one. While we were all week and agonising, things started to move around us. Scientists explained it was hallucinations from the disease, but it wasn’t, it was the rise of the Mutants. After achieving their vengeful plot the Mutants could finally work on creating a permanent autonomous zone. Since they don’t need any specific resources to survive, the Mutants did not need any official or central authorities. The life of a Mutant is fairly short, so the brief time they have they would spent it without restrictions. Their actions are always self-willed while being respectful of others. The help they provide to each others is always enthusiastic and without motives...

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Karine Cossette est une artiste vivant et travaillant à Montréal. Son travail, regroupé dans le projet Mutants, explore les possibilités surréelles des objets abandonnés dans l’espace public. Bâti autour d’un scénario mettant en vedette son alter ego, Kassie Cornette, Mutants sous-entend l’existence d’une réalité parallèle habitée par les objets que nous rejetons. En 2008, elle entreprend un voyage de deux mois aux États-Unis avec le soutient du Conseil des Arts et Lettres du Québec afin de photographier des roadside attractions tout autant étranges que spectaculaires. Elle a récemment achevé une installation in-situ recréant l’espace intime et chaotique de Kassie Cornette dans un appartement loué pour l’occasion.

Karine Cossette (b. 1981, Montreal, Quebec) received a BFA from Concordia University in Montreal where she currently lives and works. Her work is mostly organized around the Mutants, an ongoing project that explores, though a fictional plot, the surreal possibilities surrounding abandoned objects. During the summer of 2008, with the support of the Quebec Art Council she went in a trip to the United States to document various abandoned roadside attractions. She recently achieved an in-situ installation where she recreate the life environnement her alter-ego, Kassie Cornette.

karinecossette[at]gmail.com