Exodus 138

The North Shore is, above all, colours. It is a large band of blue, the St. Lawrence river, and the white of the sea ice that breaks up early in the spring. Then there’s the grey of asphalt - Route 138 – a long stroke that separates the blue of the water from the green of the forest. But this scar on the natural tapestry of Gaspésie comes to an abrupt end. The road stops and beyond that, it’s all white. From the U.S. border with the state of New York to the end of the road in Kegaska, one by one, cities, communities, and wide open spaces create a vast, itinerant masterpiece, punctuated with a sign: “FIN”. What lies beyond that point is a new journey into the wild. There is no road for hundreds of kilometers until Labrador, where Route 138 reappears to connect Vieux-Fort and Blanc-Sablon. What does it mean today to live on the North Shore? Who are the men and women who live there? What is their way of life and their way of thinking? The everyday spaces we inhabit often goes unnoticed. However, places and objects are revealing of the personality of the people who share their space. For one moment, at the mercy of chance meetings and happy accidents, we observe person, place, and object in contemplation of the beating red heart of the North Shore. The North Shore, a land of struggle. Against the elements, against each other in political struggles past and present, for the environment, and for identity. Québécois, aboriginal, anglophone, francophone, or acadien. Documentation conducted between April 2015 and May 2016.