The Riding Mountain Artists’ Residency provides professional Manitoba artists with time to focus on their work in the beautiful natural setting of Riding Mountain National Park.
The next artist-in-residence for 2023 is Victoria Perrie, a Winnipeg-based theatre artist, playwright, and poet. Ahead of her time in the historic Deep Bay Cabin, Victoria answered a few of our questions about her work and how she’ll be spending her residency.
MAC: Tell us a little about yourself as an artist and your practice.
Victoria Perrie: I am a Métis-Cree artist from Winnipeg. My artistic practices are in theatre, playwriting, and poetry. My poetic practice explores the effect of criminal code provisions on community and family. My work explores complex and nuanced themes of identity and violence (colonial and interpersonal) while reflecting on the beauty of land and kinship.
Tell us about your project—what will you be working on in the Deep Bay Cabin?
I will be working on a collection of poems reflective of my time living in Nunavut working as a criminal defence lawyer while being on Inuit land. The poems explore reflections of my youth, pieced together with snips of my present day law practice, the overlap between the two, stitched together by references to the criminal code and observations of community.
What is your relationship with the park, and what are you most looking forward to exploring?
I made several trips to the park as a youth with my family to visit the buffalo. I have since made a handful of trips as an adult and reminisce about my times there as a youth. I am excited to explore new corners of the park and spend some time with the water.
How do you hope the park will influence or inspire your project or practice?
I hope the land in the park will firmly ground me and my work in my home territory and bring inspiration from my ancestors who lived on these lands since time immemorial.
Anything else you’d like to share with readers and the Riding Mountain National Park community?
In addition to my arts practices, I maintain a criminal law practice in Nunavut while living in Winnipeg. Fun fact: my poetry was featured earlier this summer at the Festival of Literary Diversity (The FOLD), and my poems and I went on tour to England in June. I like fishing, iced coffee, raspberries, and having chats!
The Riding Mountain Artists’ Residency is offered in partnership by the Manitoba Arts Council and Riding Mountain National Park.
Interested in the staying in the Deep Bay cabin? Find out how to apply to the Riding Mountain Artists Residency through the Learn – Residencies grant stream. Apply by January 15, 2024 for a residency in the summer of 2024.
