Be Kinder to Yourself

Performance, La Centrale Galerie Powerhouse, Montréal | 2014

At La Centrale Galerie Powerhouse, I invited visitors to choose a scroll. Each bore a message of kindness, written in French and English. The exchange was spare: no explanation, no instruction, only an invitation extended in silence. Visitors chose, unrolled, read. Many paused before registering why.

That restraint was deliberate. A small, wordless gesture can carry disproportionate weight. The scroll asked nothing of its recipient except a moment of attention. Without framing, each person met the message alone, privately, in their own time.

Following the vernissage, the remaining scrolls left the gallery. I tucked them into inconspicuous corners of the building, then of the surrounding neighbourhood: a stairwell, a doorway, a street corner. Each became an anonymous gift, waiting for whoever happened to pass.

I was drawn to the image of a stranger finding one by chance, a small jolt of unexpected joy arriving in the middle of an ordinary day. Care directed at no one in particular reaches everyone. No signature, no audience, no expectation of return: the gesture is complete upon release.

The performance formed part of a fundraiser for Imago Theatre's Artista program, an initiative supporting young women theatre artists. As a member of Imago's board of directors, I organized the event. Generosity moved in two directions that evening: scrolls offered freely to visitors, support gathered for emerging artists.

Beneath the work sits a quiet question: how little is actually required to prompt reflection? Grand gestures are not the answer here. Quiet, anonymous ones, offered into the world, may be enough. The invitation travels outward to strangers, inward to the self: be kinder to others, be kinder to yourself.