Alphiya Joncas is deeply rooted in the heart of the vast Magdalen Islands archipelago. She is a multidisciplinary artist who dialogues with the land. Her work, which combines photography, sculpture, and writing, unfolds over time and nurtures an embodied reflection on belonging and feeling at home. Her actions engage with the insular setting of the Magdalen Islands, where she lives, which she loves, and which she identifies as her anchor. Strategies such as walking and wandering help her to comb through the archipelago's vastness and to comprehend its expanses. In an effort to embrace their welcoming nature, she questions her own identity by transcribing her roots within them. Always close to her camera, she brings it along on her long walks to eagerly capture the landscapes that catch her attentive eye. Her projects evoke places that blur the border between the familiar and the unknown. Unnamed and unidentified, although we can make out their Madelinot outlines, these house-spaces tell the story of an attachment to all those inhabitable zones that eventually decide to embrace us, and adopt us. The anonymity afforded by this approach enriches the universal narrative of our everyday surroundings. Joncas' images often offer poetic superimpositions of altered and revisited perspectives, to then capture the spontaneity of the glances we cast upon changing environments. Writing, like images, makes tangible the randomness of contemplative but very real encounters that bind us to these spaces.

Alphiya Joncas has been selected by Vaste et Vague as part of the PRÉSENCES project. Following her residency at Centre SAGAMIE, she will take part in a group exhibition at Vaste et Vague in summer 2026.

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