Hares and Foxes on a Paper Forest

Characters and sets from an animated film

Hares and Foxes on a Paper Forest presents a selection of sets and characters from Frédérick Tremblay’s most recent stop-motion short film, The Death of a Vixen (2026). Set within a miniature world where hares and foxes—prey and predator—uneasily share the same territory, the film recounts the tragic fate of a doe ostracized by her community after showing compassion toward an orphaned fox cub.

Over the course of three years, Tremblay single-handedly built and nurtured this sensitive universe, moving through every stage of production: storyboarding, fabrication, and frame-by-frame shooting. His efforts culminated in a 19-minute, 30-second film featuring roughly twenty articulated puppets and a dozen dense, intricately crafted sets, soon to be released in 2026.

An exhibition of material traces

Hares and Foxes on a Paper Forest offers a glimpse into the physical remnants of The Death of a Vixen. These elements—sets, puppets, accessories, fragments of environments—are reassembled into five tableaux. Through a reinterpretation of selected moments from the film, the exhibition foregrounds the tangible labour of stop-motion filmmaking.

A unifying feature across all characters and environments is their texture. This distinctive formal quality arises from Tremblay’s signature technique: the use of masking tape as the primary construction material for his puppets and sets. Applied one piece at a time, this hand-built surface treatment lends his work a striking visual identity while preserving a deliberately crafted, tactile aesthetic.

Delicate, meticulously layered and rich in micro-textures, the characters and landscapes of The Death of a Vixen once carried the emotional weight of a narrative oscillating between tenderness and cruelty. Removed from the confines of the studio, they now appear in Hares and Foxes on a Paper Forest with an unprecedented sense of proximity—inviting slow looking, contemplation and renewed appreciation for their material presence.

Artist Biography

Frédérick Tremblay

Frédérick Tremblay is an award-winning stop-motion filmmaker from Québec, active for more than two decades. He has produced and directed numerous puppet-animation short films, including The Death of a Vixen (2026), Toutes les poupées ne pleurent pas (All Dolls Do Not Cry, 2017) and Blanche fraise (White Strawberry, 2011). His films have earned more than fifty awards and distinctions in Canada and internationally, including an Iris Award for “Best Animation” at the 2018 Gala Québec Cinéma.

Tremblay is recognized for his inventive masking-tape construction technique and for the evocative restraint of his mute characters, whose neutral facial expressions heighten the emotional impact of gesture and movement.

This project was made possible with the support of the Canada Council for the Arts.

The Death of a Vixen was primarily created during a long-term co-production residency at La Bande Vidéo, a media arts centre in Québec City.