At Western Front, Fish Tail unfolds as an epistolary narrative, February 20

The one-woman performance and installation is by Montreal’s Marie Ségolène Brault

By Gail Johnson

Marie Ségolène Brault, Fish Tail. Photo by Danie Chabot

Western Front presents Fish Tail on February 20 at 8 pm

SOUND RECORDINGS, FORAGED flora, martini glasses, fishing tackle, found books, laboratory equipment, and a dead fish: all of these objects make up a new one-woman performance and installation taking place at Western Front on February 20.

Fish Tail is a 30-minute work by Montreal-based artist Marie Ségolène Brault that unfolds as an epistolary narrative. It was developed as part of the three-month Québec-Acadie Residencies presented by the Gare de Matapédia, Gaspésie; the Projet Borgitte, Cap-Pelé; the Galerie Sans Nom, Moncton; and the Fonderie Darling in Montreal.

An interdisciplinary artist, writer, and curator based in Montreal whose work is informed by psychoanalysis and divinity, Brault was inspired to create the piece after reading a 1989 New York Times article recounting a fishing expedition on Quebec’s Matapédia River—detailing water temperatures, shifting currents, and the challenges of catching salmon on the fly.

Fish Tail centres on a series of unsent letters addressed to a compulsive fisherman while also focusing on a small Montreal bar and its bartender as well as the Matapédia River. Confessions are enhanced by personal memories, quotations from film and literature, and conversations with Matapédia locals. Through interwoven poetic fragments, themes of desire, time, seduction, and longing all shine through.  

Brault holds a master’s in performance from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and is the founding director of the gallery Espace Maurice. 

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