ESSEN (Yiddish: to eat), an occasion that brought people together to feed each other, was part of a larger series of process-based public art actions called (Being) One Thing at a Time. As an opportunity to pay closer attention and slow down, each unfolding revealed new insights – and set the stage for transformative encounters.
[Feature photo: Aaron McKenzie Fraser]
Photo: VS
ESSEN (Barrie)
(June 2007)
The MacLaren Art Centre & La Plancha Diabolo, Urban Visions-Shorelines: 07, Barrie, ON
ESSEN invited pairs of participants (often strangers) to sit across from each other at a table, in the sharing of a meal at a restaurant. This playful performance insisted that one is not permitted to feed oneself but instead be fed by one’s dining partner. In Barrie, ON, we took over an entire restaurant for two separate sittings. 
Photo: Martin Savoie
ESSEN (ATSA Edition)
(Nov 2006)
Place Émilie-Gamelin, ATSA-État d’Urgence, Montreal, QC
For the ATSA-État d’Urgence, the performance took shape inside the main cafeteria tent; a warm shelter serving daily meals for a week to large numbers of unhoused people in Montreal. Wanting to propose artful undertakings in a politicized context, the ATSA directors invited me to offer a celebratory encounter over food.
Photo: courtesy of Radio-Canada
ESSEN (The TV Edition)
(July 2006)
Marché Jean-Talon, on the nationally broadcast T.V. show Des kiwis et des hommes, Radio-Canada Télévision, Montreal, QC
Having gotten wind of this series of public performances where people feed each other, the popular CBC talk show about food that took place in the environs of the Jean-Talon farmers’ market had me on to discuss the performance and instigate a shared meal with the hosts and their other invited guests. Art/life action at its finest.
ESSEN (ascent Tour-Montreal)
(Feb 2006)
Restaurant Dev, ascent magazine three-city tour; Montreal, QC
ascent yoga magazine also got wind of this action and after having published an article I wrote on the relationship between mindfulness and food (and the way slowing down for mindful eating becomes a central theme in this performance), they sponsored a three-city tour capping off at an Indian restaurant in Montreal. 
Photo: Kolya J. Malloff
ESSEN (ascent Tour-Vancouver)
(Jan 2006)
radha yoga & eatery, ascent magazine three-city tour; Vancouver, BC
For the Vancouver meal, we took over radha yoga & eatery, a vegetarian restaurant in the heart of Vancouver. Over 40 people (in white shirts, as was the recommended outfit) shared a “feeding-each-other” experience with revealing conversations following, about the challenges of offering such a gesture to a complete stranger.
Photo: Phil Chee
ESSEN (ascent Tour-Toronto)
(Jan 2006)
Vegetarian Haven, ascent magazine three-city tour; Toronto, ON
In Toronto a smaller, cozier group met for vegetarian Chinese food and again munched in awkward bite-fulls over conversation around our particular (even troubled) relationships to food.
Photo: Aaron McKenzie Fraser
ESSEN (Ottawa)
(May 2005)
Ottawa Art Gallery & Shanghai Restaurant, Off Grid/Hors Circuit, Ottawa, ON
In an intergenerational version of this infiltrating action, one poignant remark after the experience came from a mother who lamented that being fed by her (eight-year old) daughter was a frustrating ordeal: either not enough food on the fork, or too much, offered too slowly or not fast enough! (A recurring observation in this piece!)
Photo: Mikiki
ESSEN (St. John’s)
(April 2005)
Eastern Edge Gallery & Velma’s Restaurant, Outspoken Exhibition, St. John’s, NL
In its first outside-of-my-hometown presentation, my ongoing inquiry into my contentious relationship to food found us in a traditional maritime restaurant (and St. John’s institution). Eating and feeding, a group of strangers discussed their respective thoughts on the subject while awkwardly negotiating lunch.
Photo: SB Edwards
ESSEN (Montreal)
(Nov 2003)
Le Barbare, Montreal, QC
The first (–not true! There was another prior, but, alas, the documentation failed), so, the second-almost-first iteration occurred as part of a larger series of public infiltrations around the city of Montreal: works that looked at if, and how, gestures that subtly disrupt the “everyday” succeed in impacting the (urban) landscape.
Victoria Stanton 