VIEW’S FROM MONTREAL ISLAND
BY JESSICA AUER
Jessica Auer is a photographer and visual artist from Montreal. Her work is broadly concerned with the study of cultural sites, focusing on themes that connect place, journey and cultural experience. Auer received her MFA from Concordia University in 2007 and has since exhibited across Canada and abroad. An avid wanderer, she has participated in numerous international artist residencies including The Leighton Artist’s Colony at the Banff Centre in Alberta, The Brucebo Travel Residency based in Gotland, Sweden, The Chilkoot Trail AIR in Alaska and the Yukon Territory and the Skaftfell Centre for Visual Art in Seydisfjördur, Iceland. Jessica currently teaches photography at Concordia University.
synopsis
For this project, I attempt to de-centralize the tourist’s gaze on the city by traveling along perimeter of Montreal Island, photographing the shores looking outwards. While I escape to the outer edges, towards the horizon, the built environment remains in view. I observe that shores of the island are part-nature, part-culture.
Akin to a pilgrim following an endless trajectory, I used the camera as way to engage in discovery and contemplation. Installed on all four walls of a gallery, these large-scale images place the viewer in a re-contextualized island, simulating my own photographic experience.
editor's note
Our aim is to disseminate and bring to light telling work of emergent or young photographers.