About

Chantal Rousseau (she/her) is a queer settler artist currently residing in Dawson City, Yukon, as a guest on Tr’ondëk Hwëch’in Territories. Her work uses embodied experience and research to learn about specific ecosystems. She is curious about points of connection between humans and non-humans, species diversity, conservation initiatives, and exploring a personal relationship to the natural world. She is a painter, animator, and sound and installation artist.

In 2022 she began collaborating with artist Darcy Tara McDiarmid, and together they started Starlight Sojourn Studios. Their first joint animation project, Starlight Sojourn, has been programmed in over seventeen festivals and exhibitions to date. These include the Irish Film Institute – Family Fest 2024, Images Festival, and imagineNATIVE Film + Media Arts Festival. Their second animation Evening Escapades, was commissioned by the Dawson City International Short Film Festival for their 25th anniversary. It screened at the 2024 Kassel Documentary Film Festival, Available Light Film Festival in Whitehorse, and others. Their third animation River Revelations, also completed in 2024, was commissioned by Illuminating Worldviews. They are currently in production for Midnight Migrations – Wëdzey Tay (Caribou Trail), working with a scientific research team based out of the University of Alberta and Yukon University, in conjunction with Tr’ondëk Hwëch’in and Wildlife Conservation Society Canada, that is examining the effects of climate change on caribou populations in Tr’ondëk Hwëtch’in territories. The animation is an artistic presentation of the data collected, in a way that foregrounds the caribou and lets them tell their story through their actions as they move through different changing landscapes and seasons.

Chantal has participated in numerous artist residencies including the Sointula Art Shed Artist Residency and Similkameen Artist Residency in 2024, and the Klondike Institute of Arts & Culture artist residency in Dawson City in 2022. In the summer of 2021 she was an artist-in-residence in a mobile off-grid tiny house on Manitoulin Island, hosted by 4elements Living Arts. During her time there she collaborated with two community gardens to develop site-specific and member-based projects.

In 2021, she organized a site-specific exhibition EXPO-MOTEL at the motel Le Nordet in the Gaspésie, working with two local artists, and in partnership with the artist-run centre Bureau Satellite Vaste et Vague. EXPO-MOTEL 2, the second iteration of this project took place in April 2022.

In 2024 Rousseau was selected as one of the artists for the redesigned Welcome to the Yukon Gateways signs. Her painting is featured on the sign by the US border on the Top of the World highway. Other public art projects include a temporary public artwork on display in Erindale Park in Mississauga, Ontario, from October 2020 to October 2021. The project We are all here was comprised of a series of flags showcasing species found in the Credit River Watershed. Her animations were featured in Mississauga’s Art on the Screens program in Celebration Square in July 2021. In 2020 she completed a series of billboards for the City of Kingston’s Paved Paradise temporary public art series.

In the fall of 2020 she had a solo show at the Agnes Etherington Art Centre, Tap Dancing Seagull and Other Stories, which featured a series of animated GIFs. Her work has been exhibited across Canada and internationally, including Hallwalls Contemporary Arts Centre, Buffalo; the wrong biennale; Canadian Cultural Centre, Paris; The New Gallery, Calgary; Latitude 53, Edmonton; Mercer Union, Toronto; and La Centrale, Montreal.

Her videos have been screened in numerous venues and festivals including: the Festival International d’Art Vidéo de Casablanca, Casablanca, Morocco; Videoformes International Digital Arts Festival, Clermont-Ferrand, France; Magmart XIII | international videoart festival, Naples, Italy; and the Festival Polyphonix, Bologna, Italy. Her work was featured as GIF of the Day on Art F City in 2014.

Chantal Rousseau has been involved in multiple artist collectives. She was a member of Agitated Plover Salon, a group of six Kingston-based artists, who exhibited from 2013 to 2014. She was also a member of Toronto-based Personal Volare, eleven artists who exhibited together from 2000 to 2009.

Her work is in the collections of the City of Ottawa, Agnes Etherington Art Centre, Dawson College, as well as private collections.

She is a graduate of the University of Guelph (MFA), and Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design (BFA).