These residencies underscore the primordial role that cultivating meaningful connection plays in the creation of my place-based (in situ/in socius) works. On site (often in a location I’m visiting for the first time) the particularized encounters that unfold between myself and an/other become the foundation for emergent performative life/art works.
[Feature photo: Brett McGarry]
Photo: VS
Jolliffe Island Chautauquas with Victoria Stanton (Jun-Jul 2023)
Middlepath Project – aMoral House of Cards, Yellowknife, NWT
As the inaugural resident artist, several months prior to my arrival, I initiated a dialogue with Middlepath curator/founder, jd. These conversations — around place and community, everyday practices and ephemeral objects — sparked a collaborative performative process and series of life/art events on Jolliffe Island. 
Photo: VS
Dépôt de mémoire (Human Encounters Maps) (May-Oct 2013)
Praxis Art Actuel, Ste-Thérèse, QC
Discovering a new town via privileged meetings with its residents, geopoetic meanderings had us experimenting unconventional ways of experiencing a city and being together. This process produced a “dépôt de mémoire” (a memory repository), with an extra-ordinary (and deeply appreciative) view on Ste-Thérèse.
Photo: VS
This City, My Love (an unspectacular view on Saint John) (Mar-Apr 2013)
Third Space Gallery, Saint John, NB
Spending a month in Saint John, visiting with locals who brought me to sites that have special meaning for them, I learned about this city not from guidebooks but from people who are deeply invested in it. This experience demonstrated how framing dialogue as art truly produces unexpected and privileged encounters. 
Photo: Sharon Kallis
Bottling Nostalgia / Nostalgia Embotellada: lo que puedo y no puedo llevarme a casa (Oct-Dec 2012)
FRONDA, Real de Monte, Mexico
This two-month residency with its theme of PLACE: Identity, Connection, Belonging, had me deliberately eschew production in favour of quiet listening. Cultivating relationships with local residents, these privileged encounters engendered revelatory perspectives on liminal spaces and the “performative of place.”
Photo: VS
FatherWork – MonTravail (Nov 2010–Mar 2012)
3e imperial, Granby, QC
Over 16-months, an ongoing dialogue with a young artist, William Poulin, developed into a poetic parallel between the archetypal figure of the traveling salesman and that of the nomadic artist — between my father’s life and my own. In front of the camera, being me (and my dad), there emerged uncanny images in photo and film.
Victoria Stanton 