Jessica Sarrazin

Similar to the earlier Six Postcards on Leaving Glengarry County, this work evolved out of many hours spent on the train between Windsor and Cornwall (both in Ontario, Canada).

During multiple 13-hour train trips, I would ask the train staff if I could go to the back of the train with my tripod and camera. The view from the rear of the train was monotonous, but I liked the feeling of nostalgia inherent in the backwards-facing window.

I took the photographs in 2005, but I found they were incomplete on their own. I didn’t know what to do with them, so I kept them in a cupboard in my studio for a long time. I would look at them every so often, and put them away again.

By 2019, I had been experimenting with sewing on my photos for almost 20 years. I was preparing for a show in Montreal, so I took out these images and decided the best approach would be to respond to each one individually.

This series began as a formal exploration of the semi-industrial landscape of the train tracks, seen from the back window of the train which are overlaid with intuitive hand-sewn interventions of geometric patterns.

My first approach, when I began to sew onto photographs, was to create off-kilter grids of beads over the entire image. The work subtitled ‘Lifting the scrim 1’ is one of these.

The sewn grids I created reminded me of an aesthetic experience I had while watching Les Misérables at a theatre as a teen. There was a scene which took place behind a scrim - a screen of special fabric that goes across the entire stage. It was a beautiful, ethereal effect, and it stayed with me. I recall watching as the scrim lifted and the scene transitioned from a dream-like moment into the present, bright by contrast.

‘Lifting the scrim 2’ was made immediately after, and was a reaction to completing the grid on ‘Lifting the scrim 1.’ I let some small metal tube beads fall out onto the photo’s surface, and the arrangement struck me an exact antidote to its companion piece. I marked the spots where they fell and sewed them on in that arrangement. I liked the kinetic energy from these little shapes. They could be an explosion above an unseen train, or they could be a small flock of starlings above the empty track.

In the works I completed later in the series: Moving, Turning, and Nostalgia, the hand-sewn beads and lines of thread are overlaid in a more complicated screen that hovers between you and the landscape, but doesn’t obscure it. For ‘Nostalgia,’ the title refers to the inherent nostalgic nature of these images as, mentioned earlier, we are literally looking back while the train is traveling forward.

‘Turning’ is a take on a traditional Japanese wave pattern, as I am strongly influenced by Japanese visual culture and their tradition of craftsmanship. I have altered the traditional pattern by varying the size of the arches, combining both large and small arcs. I have also varied the size of beads making up the waves. The effect reminds me of rainy trips when the windows are covered in beads of water.

In the image ‘Moving,’ I had a strong desire to sew into the black area around the train window. The isometric grid laid over the image has the optical illusion of both coming forward and receding at the same time. This pattern was inspired both by the work of M.C. Escher and by the packaging for the video game Q*bert, which I saw as a child but never played. In the game, the main character navigated an isometric landscape.

In ‘Bloodless,’ the final work completed in the series, I was reflecting on the human cost and dark history of the railway in Canada. Like a lot of people, I love to travel by train. I often think about the workers who built our rail lines, so It was important for me to include one piece in the series that was an acknowledgement of them.

Many workers died during the construction of Canada’s railways, and most were Chinese labourers. In the racist ethos of the time, they were considered to be expendable. Once the railways were built, these workers were discarded by Canadian society. Some managed to survive by setting up businesses or working in factories, but thousands were left without any means of employment. Without work and without funds to travel home, many perished of exposure or illness, near the tracks they had worked on. (Source: Toronto Railway Museum)

The railroads we enjoy today come with a heavy cost in terms of human life. The central line in this image is sewn in red thread, within clear glass beads and is reminiscent of a human spine. It also reflects the ties of the railway itself, and connects the sky to the land below.

January 31, 1953 (Zoutelande, The Netherlands)

On Feb 1, 1953, there was a massive flood in the Netherlands when the dykes holding back the North Sea failed during a storm.

Because I have Dutch heritage, I wanted to memorialize this moment. The stars in the image are those that were above this location at midnight on Jan 31, 1953, right before the flooding started.

My mother was born in the Netherlands shortly before this night, on January 7th, 1953. Because of the flood, she and my grandparents left the hospital in a boat, navigating the flooded streets. They returned to their home with the ground floor under water.

In contrast to the ominous sky, the work depicts the North Sea on the shores of Zouteland in a moment of calm. For now, there is a secure defence against the water: a feat of Dutch engineering called the Delta works. For now, Zouteland and the Netherlands are safe from flooding, but the future of the country is uncertain. Dutch water engineering continues to evolve and adapt to rising sea-levels.

Cloudland: Awash in idyllic blue and pink clouds, this panoramic image was taken at dusk. It has a few stars just beginning to peek through the sky as night falls. It reminds me of the Dutch-influenced children’s poem: ‘Wynken Blynken and Nod’ by American writer Eugene Field.

Argo Navis (The ship Argo) is a lost constellation. Over time, the placement of the stars from Earth's perspective have shifted, and so we no longer have a view of the full constellation. It is now broken into 3 constellations: Carina (the keel), Puppis (the poop deck) and Vela (the sails). Source: Wikipedia article 'Argo Navis'

This work is an imagining of what the constellation would have looked like when we could still see the three parts all together, as a ship. The landscape shown in all three of these images in this series is a beach on the North Sea, in Zouteland, The Netherlands.

An early project, this series evolved out of spending a lot of time on the train between Toronto and Glengarry county. This work explores the tension of moving from a rural place to the city as a young adult.