Florence Debeugny, Artist Statement
Johanne Dumas, Executive and Artistic Director for Société francophone de Maillardville approached me a few years ago with an invitation to produce an exhibition for the Maillardville centennial. Her initial concept was to create 100 black and white portraits.
In nearly 10 years of an art career developing projects that reveal impressions of places and stories of people as part of our heritage, it was the first time a commission for a project of this kind was offered to me in French. Although I have no cultural roots in Maillardville, I hoped to establish contacts and dialogue with people who have the same maternal language as mine and who also live as a linguistic minority. Moreover, my projects have always been about the impact of industry on communities. Maillardville was established because of the lumber industry when the first francophones arrived in 1909 to work at the large Fraser Mills. This additional connection peaked my interest and proclivity to conceptualize this artistic project.
The project Maillardville 100 ans et plus/Maillardville 100 and beyond is composed of three elements: the portraits, the multimedia video and the document containing 100 texts.
Thanks to a few very committed people in the Maillardville community, a list of names was drawn up several times at the beginning of 2008. I wanted to interview 100 people who had a connection with Maillardville at some time, whatever the reason, be it to have been born there, to have lived or worked there, or to have been in regular contact with its organizations or inhabitants. Many group meetings were organized to provide potential participants with an opportunity to learn about my project and process. In no time the list of acquired names surpassed the decided limit of 100 people and the final selection came about quite naturally based on availability. My only criteria: to present a representation of different age groups even if in the end, a majority of participants were elders or in their mid-life due to the local demographic.
From March to the end of September 2008, I met most of the selected participants in the Foyer Maillard’s meeting room, which had been graciously provided for my interviews. In general, I questioned one person at a time while taking notes, then recorded their words for about five minutes. Finally I took their portraits at a site of their choosing in connection to Maillardville.
When some of the people interviewed worried about not knowing the history of Maillardville very well, I assured them that it is their Maillardville that interested me. I wanted to transmit oral history in its humanity by giving voice to those who make history by living and creating it in daily life. I had noticed in my previous projects, referring to architecture, in other accounts relating to our heritage, that it is the privileged who have an interest in preserving their homes, while others whose history is so often ignored, witness, powerless, the demolition of their homes.
Since the geographical place of Maillardville was of primary importance in this project, I explored the idea of using double exposure photography, combining the individual’s portrait with their selected location. I quickly realized that time constraints and unforeseeable events, along with uncertain weather conditions informed my decision to abandon the idea of using double exposure in favour of single portraits.
As months went by, my approach evolved through the harvesting of information. I began asking the names of the participants’ parents and children and once I returned to my studio after an interview, I would immediately type their words that most impacted me, yet had not been repeated during the recording. A similar evolution occurred with my photography. I was using a 50 mm lens along with a zoom lens of 80 mm-200 mm that allowed me to get a closer shot of the person without invading their personal space. Eventually, I switched the 50 mm to the 28 mm lens to include a larger part of the environment where the participant wanted to be photographed.
I deepened my rapport with the participants by spending numerous hours with each one during the interviews and photo shoots and also during the production of the exhibition as I studied and made selections from all the amassed material. Unfortunately, two of the ladies that I had met died during the making of this project. I consider it a great privilege to have captured their stories before their death.
I began understanding the full scope of this project and the wealth of all this gathered material. It became obvious that the best way to represent the moments spent with each person was to exhibit two portraits per person instead of one and to add a single page of text to tell each person’s story. The stories are compiled into a 100 page document which more accurately evokes the sharing while also giving the person greater respect.
The multimedia component was conceived to establish a parallel dialogue between the portraits on the wall and the document of compiled texts. The black and white portraits of living people are a reference to past photographic methods and strengthen the ties between descendents and their pioneer ancestors who arrived during different periods. The lack of color evokes archives, and old photos. The use of current photographic methods such as contemporary papers, printing methods and dry mounting accentuate the present and living people.
The sound track accompanying the multimedia video allows for the experience of hearing people speaking regional French composed of various accents from many places. Moreover, the soundtrack gives us access to the musicality of the language and its oral history.
In 100 years, Maillardville has seen many changes and its history is richer, without a doubt, than the romantic notion I imagined at the beginning of this captivating project. I caught a glimpse of the essence of the oldest francophone community in British Columbia, not only by meeting many of its people but also by exploring its physical parameters such as its streets and houses, its buildings and parks. I have discovered that there is a surprising number of francophone names in the cemeteries of New Westminster and Coquitlam that serve Maillardville and I hope that the roots unearthed in the undertaking of this project remain alive always.
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