Self-portrait, Annik Gaudet

3 Questions: Artist & Curator in Conversation

Describe your working process as an artist. 

My practice is activated through the act of observation, I am a collector of objects of visual interest which I subvert, investigate or humorously repurpose to serve my own means. My video performances usually begin with an intuitive pull towards an object or concept which I feel a burning desire to materialize into an artwork. I often sketch out a rough idea for a costume or props and consider the aesthetic qualities that I want to achieve in the work. In my notebook, I loosely plan out the types of camera shots that I will need to support my intended theme or narrative. I am not overly rigorous in this process, mostly using these plans as a framework in which I can improvise. In the field, I play the role of performer and documentarian. I carefully choose my location, typically involving trekking deep in the forest with my camera, tripod and materials in a backpack.  

When shooting, I rely on the intuitive moments where I am directly responding to the landscape, collecting as much footage as possible and doing as many takes as necessary. Often I laugh at what I must look like by myself in the middle of nowhere, running back and forth from camera to scene wearing some strange costume and performing absurd actions. Once I have the footage collected and sorted on my computer, the editing process is where I distill and mold the work. Considering how one shot flows into the next, this is where the puzzle pieces come together, where I truly labor over every detail and craft the moving images to form the final work. 

What was your source of inspiration for your work in the exhibition? How did the act of art-making help you in reflecting on/responding to the pandemic as an artist? 

 As the pandemic suddenly separated us from our family, friends and social contact, we were faced with navigating and adapting to a new environment, exposing the comforts that we took for granted. Plans were put to a grinding halt and just procuring bare necessities like groceries suddenly became a huge undertaking. This isolation from one another also pushed us to develop new relationships to our surroundings, seeing everything through a new lens. The sublime emptiness of wilderness seemed to me a perfect depiction for this isolation. The word bear is a homonym, its meaning has two folds, the noun for the animal as well as the verb ‘to bear’. Every aspect of our basic needs, food, companionship, security and even sleep has been affected by this pandemic, leaving us to carry the anxieties and curiosities of this new environment. Bear was inspired by this act of learning and adaptation through isolation. In return, creating this work has allowed me to externalize my own anxieties and process the complexities of this pandemic that seemed to have dulled into a mundane everyday reality.  

How do you think visual art helps us understand the complex world around us? 

 Art-making is a way to externalize the issues, thoughts and experiences that permeate in our minds, using its own universal language to bring to the forefront abstract feelings, concepts and observations. An artwork can be both relatable and alienating. Artists are charged with the role of cultural ambassadors and art-making provides a platform to denote beauty, to criticize injustice and to embody self-reflection. Visual art is just another way for one human to translate their life experiences with the hope that someone will relate, reflect, dive into and take away some part of the artwork with them.