Chester Art Centre Residency
I spent two months living and making art in Chester, Nova Scotia, from April 2023-June 2023 as part of Chester Arts Centre’s Artist-In-Residence program. I was lucky enough to share the opportunity with artist Inbal Newman, with whom I shared a studio, accommodations, and a week-long culminating exhibition at the Chester Art Center. During this time I explored my relationship with place and queer identity through textiles (rug hooking, hand stitching, machine sewing, patchwork, and free form crochet).
During this residency, I wrote a small anthology of written musings exploring my relationship to place and to self. I named this work the Chester Letters. In it I reflect on the intricacies of this town as a space, and my experience of living here for a short while. I contemplate the differences between thought patterns experienced while living in the city versus this town. I contemplate queerness in relation to small town living.
This was my first time interacting with the town of Chester. It was also my first time living in a small town setting for longer than 2 weeks.