Underscoring parallels between performance and travel (how the liminal circulates in both), over several residencies I turned my arrival process into an art project: documenting public “micro-actions” edited into a video-loop that accompanied live performance as a way to meaningfully connect with, and ground into, a new place.
[Feature photo: Christian Richer]
Photo: Juan Saez
Roadside Attractions (Redux) (Nov 2010)
OBORO, HTMlles 2010, Montreal, QC
Having produced a three-screen projection in residence at Daïmon (Hull) a year earlier this backdrop accompanied another iteration of the Redux stage performance. While I engage in repetitive actions before an audience, “real-time” me enacts counterpoints in dialogue with my past self to re-actualize another arrival.
Photo: VS
Roadside Attractions: From A to B and Back Again (Aug 2010)
PAVED Arts, Saskatoon, SK, as part of the solo exhibition of the same name
The Saskatoon iteration marked a departure with its transition toward what would become “Relationships in Residence.” Accompanied by an assistant, this generous presence not only shared stories of their relationship to this city, they also performed micro-actions for the camera, critically impacting the project’s direction.
Photo: VS
Roadside Attractions (Toronto)
(June 2010)
OCAD, Performance Studies International 16 – Performing Publics, Toronto, ON
Presented as part of a panel on how place performs, I brought the process into dialogue with performance studies scholars to collectively think about how repetition of action in space engenders a sense of familiarity, to then become a particularized connection to place (“natural” landscape or the built environment). 
Photo: courtesy of OFFTA
Roadside Attractions (Redux) (May 2010)
Théâtre d’Aujourd’hui, OFFTA Festival, Montreal, QC
The three-screen projection made in residence at Daïmon (Hull) six months earlier (see below) became the focal point in a black box production, a larger-than-life image timed to a series of stage actions that challenged notions of stability through demonstrating the feeling of fragility in a shaky process of arrival in a new location.
Photo: Christian Richer
Roadside Attractions (Berlin)
(Mar 2010)
The KuLe, Performer Stammtisch, Berlin, Germany
Documented micro-actions on the roadside between the venue where I would present (KuLe) and the house where I lived were edited into a 20-minute video loop to then accompany a live stage performance of repetitive “daily” actions: the making of knockwurst sandwiches on rye bread with cryptic mustard-drawn messages. 
Photo: Christian Richer
Roadside Attractions (Sardinia)
(Feb 2010)
Teatro Arka, Spatializing the Local, Sardinia, Italy
Documented micro-actions on the roadside between the theatre where I would present (Teatro Arka) and the house where I lived were edited into a 20-minute video loop to then accompany a live stage performance of repetitive “daily” actions: hopscotching on special flatbreads, eating the crushed pieces, and skipping rope. 
Photo: Phil Rose
Roadside Attractions (Hull) (Aug–Nov 2009)
Centre Daïmon, solo residence & performance of the same name, Gatineau, QC
A longer residence and technical assistance resulted in a more intricate process and refined final product. With Rebecca Solnit’s Field Guide to Getting Lost inspiring this iteration, notions of “home” and finding solace in liminal spaces inflected the narrative of the video work and its large-scale three-screen projection performance.
Photo: courtesy of Femme branchées
Roadside Attractions (Gabriola Redux)
(Dec 2008)
Studio XX (now Ada X), Femmes branchées #70: Top Chrono, Montreal, QC
Reading a meditation on the similarities between travelling and performing, the accompanying video from micro-actions documented in BC produced a displaced doubled presence: live me (on stage) with past me (onscreen) shifting perceptions of time as the question of place (disjointed), produces another kind of liminality. 
Photo: VS
Roadside Attractions (Gabriola)
(Nov 2008)
Phoenix Auditorium, Poetry Gabriola Festival, Gabriola, BC
Documented micro-actions on the roadside between the auditorium where I would present and the house where I lived were edited into a 20-minute video loop to then accompany a reading on the similarities between travelling and performing punctuated by repetitive “mundane” actions: skipping, running and resting.
Photo: VS
Roadside Attractions (Leeds) (Oct 2008)
Leeds Met Gallery & Theatre, Playing in Urban Places Conference, Leeds, UK
Presented as part of a conference on the role of play (and infiltrating actions) in urban space, I brought my process into dialogue with performance studies scholars to collectively think about how urban spaces are activated, by whom, and who is “permitted” (or not) to enact such activations; who is allowed to play (and how)?
Photo: courtesy of Vaste et Vague
Roadside Attractions (Carleton)
(May 2008)
Centre d’artistes Vaste et Vague, Tout un monde : stratégies d’existence
Carleton-sur-mer, QC
The residence that started it all! Curated by Sylvie Tourangeau, she encouraged experimentation and a taking of new directions in one’s (performative) practice. The result was the conceptualizing and deployment of a structure (as described in the main intro above) that would inform the next two years of my work.
Victoria Stanton 