Although we are no longer at the height of the pandemic like in 2020, COVID-19 looms over as a sort of boogeyman that threatens to latch on when one least expects it. As someone who still lives with their family and has an immunocompromised relative, I have to be a bit more careful than most people my age. This past March, I had the opportunity to chat with Eugénie Gaultier Boucher over a Zoom call. Despite the electronic screens dividing us, her warm presence transcended the cold nature of technology. 

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About the Artist

Eugénie Gaultier Boucher is a Montreal or Tiohtiá:ke based multimedia artist, currently completing her bachelor’s  degree at UQAM under their fine arts program. Her decision to become an artist was evident to her from a young age, one that occurred to her in the first grade. Her love of nature also began in her youth in her hometown of Saint-Hilaire, Québec. Eugénie’s decision to study at UQAM was partially spurred on by its local status and proximity to her parents; she sheepishly admitted that it is a three hour drive to visit them, but to her it is more than close enough. UQAM had also been recommended to her as the best place to expand and explore her craft. Prior to studying at this establishment, she received her DEC in artistic practice from the Cégep of Saint-Hyacinthe.

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Land Art 2.0

Eugénie is a multimedia artist who works with writing, painting, papermaking, and performance art. Land art has always been a great inspiration of hers, though she frowns upon the often harmful and less than environmentally friendly methods that early artists of this form have taken. She wants to reclaim land art and improve it to fit her morals and views, redefining it as a mindful ecological practice of “being present”. Her artwork often focuses on themes related to the environment, such as ecofeminism and ‘permeability’ –a notion inspired by the writings of Cyndie Bussière and Robin W. Kimmerer, which Eugénie defines as an attention, openness and receptivity to the world. Though this path was not always evident to her and was a long process, Eugénie’s  version of land art is intrinsically linked with nature and an increased environmental awareness, sharpened by her numerous readings on the subjects of ecofeminism, land ethic, artisanal crafts and plants. All of which is not only reflected in her work but also in the materials she uses. 

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Eugénie’s favourite part of the art process is gathering the materials for her work. In fact, most of her supplies are found in nature. As we spoke, she pointed out the shadow cast on her wall and across her smiling face of flowers tied up to dry on her window. Having the constraint of eco-responsibility forces her to be more creative. She loves learning new ways of making biodegradable pigments, papers, and other craftworks out of materials found in nature that she incorporates into her art. Not only is it eco-friendly and biodegradable—unlike acrylic and  resin—it also is, more importantly for her, a way to disengage from the capitalist mindset and fast-paced way of living. '”J’aime la lenteur des cueillettes à la marche et de l’écriture. Je veux prendre mon temps; je me dis que c’est ma douce résistance à la rapidité et la productivité capitaliste de notre époque,” Eugénie said to me.. There is a sort of “ritual” that she follows when she forages outside. Before taking a part from a plant, she thanks it and demonstrates her gratitude to it. She also only takes what she needs. No more, no less. As she told me during our interview, she wants to “faire le même impact qu’un chevreuil,” which means to have the same impact as a deer. 

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The artist documents parts of her material making process on her Instagram account, allowing us a glimpse into the creative machinations behind her work. She often creates her art in the makeshift workshop that she shares with her boyfriend in their apartment—it also happens to be where we were virtually conducting this interview. However, the outdoors also functions as her work space. Her untraditional nature must be noted, though, to be fair, most artists are eccentric to some extent.

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Not only is the environment a core theme of Eugénie’s art, it is also a big part of her life. Someday, she hopes to live off the grid, self-sufficiently in a house of her own. She even dreams of creating a “hippie art” commune someday, where she could live off of her art. In a world full of eco-anxiety and uncertainty for twenty-somethings like she and I, her sheer optimism for the future makes me a little less cynical. Eugénie told me that she hopes that her work evokes feelings of happiness when people see it, and that she wants to spread a “good message” through her art. She wants to demonstrate that one can be a part of the ecosystem without being a colonizer. As someone who is a settler to Turtle Island, Eugénie attempts to decolonize her relationship to the land through her practice. When asked about decolonization in art, she firmly responded that “all artists can participate [in decolonization].” 

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In “Retour à la terre à 45,5268329, -73,4321847,” which is part of a larger artwork named “Des Bardanes sur ma peau,” Eugénie combined her paper and pigment making skills with performance art. In it, she took a piece of paper cut to the size of a postcard, wrote a poem on it and addressed it to the earth before burying it in the soil of the Tremblay forest. Speaking of this work, she said, “J'aime écrire sur la cohabitation sensible des vivants en écosystème et de ses parallèles avec nos relations d’amitiés et d’amour.” Like  most of her body of work, she explores in this piece the themes of permeability and the relationships we build with different living beings (human and more-than-human). To take organic materials, transform them into something new and return them to the earth is poetic itself, much like the message written across the piece of paper.

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When I asked Boucher what it meant to be an artist, she told me that it is totally different for each person. For her, it means to have a good impact on the world. As an artist, she tries to live life to its fullest even when she does so “against the grain.” Most importantly, to be an artist is to feel better. Walking away from this interview, I am certain that Boucher is on the right path to fulfilling her definition of an artist.