In Objets dépaysés (series), Missika relocates a series of natural objects, an act of forcibly displacing something rooted in one environment.

In Greek, “metaphor” [μεταφορά] means transport, transfer, or moving something from one place to another. In this case, the artist transports a set of Neptune balls, the seagrass fibers compacted by the waves of Corsica are carried to the volcano of Wulanhada in Inner Mongolia.

The seaweed has been previously shaped by the movement and friction of the sea, resulting in a pebble-like form that now lies atop an ancient volcano. Like a metaphor, the object is dé-paysé [out-of-the-ordinary], first transformed by the water, then, by the artist, who follows the inertia of the action until it lands amid an otherworldly landscape. This sequence of bewildering events dissolves the dichotomy of ‘natural’ and ‘artificial,’ serving as well as a metaphor for the displacement of both humans and non-humans, the denaturalization of plants, and the globalization of species.

This disruptive action culminates in the creation of a landscape milestone: These stacks are cairns, often used worldwide as landmarks to indicate summits or hiking trails. Missika completes the human-made mineral towering shape with vegetal pebbles adorning the pile. Consequently, the chain of movement may continue; this time, it will be the wind that determines the next journey of what now has become a tumble-seaweed.