The (Being) One Thing at a Time series proposed to open up a dialogue between the body and the spaces it traverses. Responding to public sites in Montreal, Ottawa and St. John’s, artists and non-artists alike co-created contemporary living tableaux vivants via meditative actions-as-subtle-interpolations into the built environment.
[Feature photo: Aaron McKenzie Fraser]
Photo: SB Edwards & VS
(Being) One Thing at a Time
(April 2008)
Centre SAGAMIE, Alma QC
The series was initially conceived as a performance for the camera in Montreal. The two distinct components (doing the performance and deliberately framing it for documentation) merged in a one-week residency during which time a selection of photos was large-scale printed and strung together by a narrative thread. 
Photo: Aaron McKenzie Fraser
(Being) One Thing at a Time – Drug
(May 2005)
Ottawa Art Gallery – Byward Market, Off Grid/Hors Circuit, Ottawa, ON
Having gotten wind of this series of actions for public places that I’d been carrying out in Montreal, the Ottawa Art Gallery invited me to reenact these collective interpolations in the downtown core of Ottawa. Among them, “Drug,” a performance that embodied notions of addiction and excess in a two-hour-long make-out session.
Photo: Aaron McKenzie Fraser
(Being) One Thing at a Time – Welcome
(May 2005)
Ottawa Art Gallery – Wellington & Elgin (now Valiants Memorial), Off Grid/Hors Circuit, Ottawa, ON
The Ottawa Art Gallery also invited me to reenact the performance “Welcome,” a meditative gesture that raised questions about who public space belongs to, and who is welcome in public space. ESSEN was another of the set of actions for public space that the OAG commissioned, discussed in Food Works: Feeding Each Other.
Photo: Michelle Bush
(Being) One Thing at a Time – Drug
(April 2005)
Eastern Edge Gallery, Scotia Bank Courtyard, St. John’s, NL
Having gotten wind of this series of actions for public places that I’d been carrying out in Montreal, Eastern Edge Gallery also invited me to reenact these collective interpolations in the downtown core of St. John’s. “Drug,” took up occupation again, in an excessive two-hour-long make-out session at sunset.
Photo: Michelle Bush
(Being) One Thing at a Time – Welcome
(April 2005)
Eastern Edge Gallery, St. John’s Court House, St. John’s, NL
Eastern Edge Gallery also invited me to reenact the performance “Welcome,” in front of the city’s main Court House, again to question who has the right to occupy public space. They also commissioned ESSEN which is discussed further in Food Works: Feeding Each Other. 
Photo: SB Edwards
(Being) One Thing at a Time – ESSEN
(July 2004)
Le Barbare, Montreal, QC
I was compelled by a storefront that I passed for many years that eventually became a very expensive restaurant. I invited a group of participants to feed each other over the course of an entire meal. This happened not at Barbare, but re-enacted at Barbare because the documentation from the “original” action was sadly lost.
Photo: SB Edwards
(Being) One Thing at a Time – Drug
(Nov 2003)
Export A Tobacco Factory, Montreal, QC
I was compelled by the Tobacco Factory near my work. Each day I walked past and wondered about addiction; how so many kinds of addiction inhabit us, including love and sex. I felt drawn to place an action here and asking people to kiss for an hour, we occupied this site – both couples and people meeting for the first time. 
Photo: SB Edwards & VS
(Being) One Thing at a Time – Welcome
(Oct 2003)
J. Lalonde et fils, Montreal, QC
I was compelled by the storefront on the corner of Park Av and Villeuneuve in Montreal. I wanted to stand inside and loll about in the rugs that this carpet store displayed in their window. Initially the store said yes but then changed their minds. A small group of us took up residence for two hours on the sidewalk outside instead. 
Photo: SB Edwards
(Being) One Thing at a Time – Body Extensions
(Aug 2003)
Mount-Royal Park, Montreal, QC
I was compelled by the side of the mountain, especially how the sunlight hit at the golden hour on the corner of Mt-Royal and Park Av. I would often stop and sit with my bicycle. I invited a group of others to do the same, this time heaped onto our bikes as a loving gesture (if not a bit awkward) towards these “body extensions.” 
Victoria Stanton 