One Minute of Stillness is an anaglyph 3D video loop inspired by the discovery that my father’s family once lived in Moulinette, Ontario, one of The Lost Villages submerged in 1958 as part of the Saint Lawrence Seaway project.
The flooding displaced approximately 6,500 residents and erased nine villages (including Moulinette) and one island in eastern Ontario. More than 530 buildings, including homes, schools, churches, community centres, and businesses, were relocated, demolished, burned, or abandoned. Rising water levels also altered portions of the New York State shoreline.
Using archival photographs, the work reflects on the physical traces left behind and the spectral presence that continues to inhabit these submerged places today.
In One Minute of Stillness, the images remain still for one minute before slowly levitating, evoking both absence and presence, and are enhanced through a simple stereoscopic experience.
Archival photographs courtesy of The Lost Villages Museum and Historical Society (Long Sault, Ontario, Canada).
