VIVIENNE BESSETTE
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a notebook on a field of grass, with a sticker of a car and painters tape on the notebook. there is an oyster shell and a muscle shell on the notebook, and on the shells are 3D stickers of googley eyes
lost notebook 2020-2021. reward if found
 a photo of vivienne in the back walking away from a wooden box that is in the middle of being built to create a raised garden bed
built raised bed for HRT garden at Garden Don't Care with Conor Fanning
 a hand touching the leaves of a very prickly milk thistle plant about to bloom
milk thistle
 two large bowls stacked on top of each other of dried milk thistle flowers on a table
growing milk thistle for the first time and harvesting seeds
 a close up of milk thistle plants which are the size of a hand palm, and very prickly, with seeds coming out the top in fluffly clusters close up of milk thistle plant, forearm length leafs that are wide and very prickly on the edges. the plant is forming a flower bud at the top clary sage plant they are small finger sized oval leaves slightly furry
clary sage in HRT garden
 mugwort plant growing in a raised bed, delicate finge hand shaped leaves on a tall stem growing in a small cluster
mugwort in HRT garden
 medicinal plants growing in a new garden bed constructed in an alleyway a newly constructed bench between two posts with vines crawling up to provide shade
bench built in collaboration with jess guthrie
 a piece of grid paper with dried flowers and plants and wishbones
poppies from last year, bones form this one
Vivienne ↗ is a queer settler & interdisciplinary artist whose ancestry ties them to Ireland, Croatia, France, and the Metis settlemens of Cayer, MB, and Red River on the traditional territory of Anishinaabe and Cree Nations. Vivienne lives and works on the stolen lands of the xwməθkwəy̓əm, Sḵwx̱wú7mesh and səlí̓lwətaʔɬ. Their practice thrives in interdependent community and mischievous understandings of parallel play as it relates to cults, neighbourhoods, and collectives, but is fundamentally about the joy of breaking the rules together. They spend much of their time drawing, painting, woodworking, tying strings, sculpting, dying, writing, fermenting and building relationships with plants. Over the growing season of 2021 Vivienne and Derya initiated the Commons Garden at Sahalli Park Community Garden and took care of it along with many other gardeners (big thank you to Adassa Brooks, Haruko Okano and Jaz Whitford, whose wisdom on what a healthy plant needs made all the difference). They built an HRT raised bed at Garden Didnt Care with milk thistle, clary sage, mugwort, and skullcap. Other collaborative plant, garden, and food, based projects include What artists bring to the table for the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria with Derya Akay and Kurtis Wilson (2019); a stint as Food Coordinator for Slow Waves Small Projects on Mayne Island with Derya Akay and Julia Feyrer (2019). V’s been published in the Capilano Review (Pattern of Pears, 2020 and Organize Your Building with the support of the Vancouver Tenants Union with the Belvedere Residents, 2018).

Instagram: @tinybuglike ↗
Email ↗