Kassandra Reynolds
exhibition at Arts Sutton

The contemporary art gallery presents The Land and Its People until March 19

Edited February 19, 2023

From February 16 to March 19, 2023, Arts Sutton Contemporary Art gallery presents The Land and Its People by photographer Kassandra Reynolds. The well-attended opening took place on Sunday, February 19.

“Westward” Kassandra Reynolds – View of Mount Pinnacle from Scenic Road. The mountain is visible from almost anywhere in Brome-Missisquoi and is easily recognizable by its silhouette, which remains the same no matter where it is viewed.

Each place has an influence on what we feel, and on what we want to achieve. Features of the landscape become landmarks that, over time, shape and inspire us. In 2022, the photographer surveyed the territory of Brome-Missisquoi to see how the inhabitants and their environment intertwine and influence each other. Inspired by both the stories of our forefathers and the contemporaries who shape the region, The Land and its People is an expression of what the Brome-Missisquoi landscape means to its inhabitants.

“Cowgirl” Kassandra Reynolds • Being connected to what’s around us. Dunham.

“During the Irish Potato Famine is when my ancestors came to the area. Michael Enright, my great-grandfather, came to West Shefford and was told he could choose one parcel of land on Gale Pond Road. This land was essentially being given away in an effort to populate the area. So in the spring, he planted wheat all along the road. He returned in the fall to choose the parcel where the wheat had grown best. The land has remained in the family ever since, and I grew up on the neighbouring farm. It bears, at least in my imagination, an uncanny resemblance to my ancestors’ original Ireland, which I suspect might have helped them in their choice of a new place to call home.” – Theresa Enright

“God’s Land” Kassandra Reynolds

Brome-Missisquoi is a place shaped by its unique history and geography. Two languages are spoken in the area, originating in the migration of the French alongside the Irish and the Loyalists. On the edge of the Appalachians, four borders surround it: to the north, Highway 10; to the south, the Canada-U.S. border; to the east, Mount Sutton; and to the west, Lake Champlain. The region has developed a network of villages characterized by mutual aid and accessibility to nature, each municipality enjoying its own colours and specialties.

“Fenêtre” Kassandra Reynolds • Ice fishing on Lake Champlain, Philipsburg.

The Land and Its People project was an opportunity to highlight the diversity of the Bromisquois landscape while showing how people live there through the seasons. Some villages disappear or have a history that fades away, hence the artist’s interest in documenting the life of small communities so that they remain in the collective memory, from generation to generation.

“Équilibre”  Kassandra Reynolds • Life in Brome-Missisquoi is intimately linked to nature.

Acknowledgements

It is thanks to the agreement of territorial partnership for arts and letters in Montérégie, in which the CALQ, the MAMH and the CLD of Brome-Missisquoi collaborate, that the artist was able to realize this project.

Kassandra Reynolds

Kassandra Reynolds grew up in Sutton, in the Eastern Townships. A graduate in photography from the Cégep de Matane, she specializes in documentary photography, a practice that often aims to highlight certain social issues. Loneliness, resilience and the question of identity are some of the themes she explores, and through which she hopes to encourage the emergence of a new way of looking at others and ourselves.

In 2021, Kassandra Reynolds was awarded the Prix relève culture Montérégie for “her magnificent quest as a photographer to document our vanishing humanity”. Spokesperson for the Montérégie for the 26th edition of the Journées de la culture, Kassandra Reynolds is very involved with the community. kassandra.reynolds@hotmail.com

The Land and Its People

February 16 to March 19, 2023

Arts Sutton
7 Academy Street, Sutton (Quebec) J0E 2K0
450-538-2563

Featured image: The Barn is an Old Insomnious Creature – Kassandra ReynoldsOther recent articles