Christine Anderson

My dad was a connoisseur of music. Our second floor bathroom had a speaker that was wired to the record player in the living room, and his darkroom in the basement was fed from the stereo in the rec room next door. His joy of music went beyond the white noise of radio play. I remember the way he would give an album his full attention, as if taking it in by ritual. A glass of wine in hand, he’d park himself on the floor in the basement, propped up by the couch and listen to an album from start […]

The Old Apartment at 320 is the first of the Apartment Series… I’ve lived in a lot of places, and have decided to report on them all—now that I have stopped moving for once. Subscribe below. In the summer of 2005 I paid some movers to pack up my Chinatown apartment and drive its contents along the 401 to Montreal. I had no idea what I was doing. The boyfriend I was moving toward had just broken up with me—having met his new girlfriend while we were out for coffee together on the last morning of my previous visit—but I […]

I know I am not alone when I say that I grew up feeling inferior, unseen and misunderstood. As a result, I have spent my life striving for perfection in order to feel accepted by those I have surrounded myself with. I am still the girl who repeated third grade because I didn’t care to grasp the concept of numbers or the correct letters that make up words. But as an adult I am gifted with finances in a way most people I know are not. My skill for stringing together thoughts on paper has become something surprising even to […]

I am obsessed with the benefits of embodiment. I believe the body is the place where emotion goes to hide. Tucked away safely in the tissues of our physical form, the mind is relieved of the burdensome fluctuations of feeling. The body is a fantastic receptacle for unprocessed experience, but there is a limit to its capacity to store. Physical sensation can be a tool for immediate acknowledgement of feeling, and for embodiment. Sensation that you feel safe to explore melds the different facets of our being, allowing communication between body and mind through observation.  I have spent hundreds of […]

320 Spadina Avenue, not to be confused with 320 Spadina Road, that was Jeff Healey’s recording studio, Forte Records—not my apartment, but we did receive his mail quite frequently. It was 1998 and from the street 320 could not be easily located. Our unofficial neighbour concealed our entrance from dawn to dusk: a friendly old guy with a shopping cart full of cheap plastic toys he sold for cash without a permit. The pedestrian traffic came to a halt right in front of 320 as the wide sidewalks were cluttered by the additional outdoor aisles of the exotic fruit shops, […]

When was the last time you were aware of your body?  Present in a way that did not include pain? Embodied without some kind of emotional desire?  The workday has been reduced to the screen in front of you: looking upon your face as those on the other end of your meeting are seeing you. Adjusting lighting, background, and turning off the microphone to eliminate the sound of the actual life in your space. In return, you receive the same false electronic interpretation of your workmates and friends. Unconsciously scanning the screen in search of humanity where it cannot exist. […]

In the summer of 2005, having just moved to Montreal, I took the bus to the Eastern Townships for 10 days of silence. Upon arrival I handed over my pen and journal, my earbuds and iPod, along with the book I had been reading. I was gifted one of only five private cabins just outside of the main house where I could spread out and be comfortable without any concerns for the roommate that those inside the main building would have. I found a pencil under the bed and its tip was worn right down to the wood. I wondered […]

In the first six months of the pandemic while struggling to acclimatize to the uncertainties that lie ahead, I began walking. It was the most effective way to fill my day. I didn’t listen to music or talk on the phone. I didn’t make eye contact with anyone along the way. For hours at a time I put one foot in front of the other marking a giant perimeter around my centretown neighbourhood. My walk route would change from time to time, but inevitably I would find myself tracing the waterways of my city and the glimpses of nature provided […]

This was my mantra as 2020 was prepping to unleash all its glory upon us. It’s a strong statement, one that has escaped my lips on several occasions in relation to various aspects of my life. Unfortunately, I actually can’t recall more than one discarded item as I prepare to draw a symbolic narrative on how freeing it has been, and I doubt that it has been so successful as to have erased my memory of those attachments, but it has been a hell of a year. This has been the kind of year that demands more of the present […]

I took a stunning picture on one of my walks along the canal on day 7 of this craziness. It was a particularly difficult day for me as I wrestled with the uncertainty of what lay ahead. Over the past four months I have walked that route repeatedly while struggling to recreate the photo as the seasons changed. I have a thing about documenting  the passage of time, and it seems as though that moment has refused to cooperate. I live in a very vibrant part of town. I have an amazing apartment with a huge area of outdoor space that […]