BULLDOZER, postcard detail, exhibition of 15 Yukon artists curated by Cathy Busby, SAW Gallery, Ottawa, 2001.
BULLDOZER, installation view, exhibition of 15 Yukon artists curated by Cathy Busby, SAW Gallery, Ottawa, 2001.
BULLDOZER, installation view featuring garment work by Doug Smarch, exhibition of 15 Yukon artists curated by Cathy Busby, SAW Gallery, Ottawa, 2001.
BULLDOZER, detail of work by Doug Smarch, exhibition of 15 Yukon artists curated by Cathy Busby, SAW Gallery, Ottawa, 2001.
BULLDOZER, installation view featuring work by Ukjese Van Kampen, exhibition of 15 Yukon artists curated by Cathy Busby, SAW Gallery, Ottawa, 2001.
BULLDOZER, installation view featuring work by Ukjese Van Kampen, exhibition of 15 Yukon artists curated by Cathy Busby, SAW Gallery, Ottawa, 2001.
BULLDOZER, installation view featuring work by Hannah Jickling, exhibition of 15 Yukon artists curated by Cathy Busby, SAW Gallery, Ottawa, 2001.
BULLDOZER, installation view featuring work by Hannah Jickling, exhibition of 15 Yukon artists curated by Cathy Busby, SAW Gallery, Ottawa, 2001.
BULLDOZER, installation view featuring work by Joyce Majiski, exhibition of 15 Yukon artists curated by Cathy Busby, SAW Gallery, Ottawa, 2001.
BULLDOZER, installation view featuring work by Joanne Jackson Johnson, exhibition of 15 Yukon artists curated by Cathy Busby, SAW Gallery, Ottawa, 2001.
BULLDOZER (2001)
BULLDOZER was an exhibition I curated in 2001 at the SAW Gallery in Ottawa, Ontario, of 15 Yukon artists: Robert Bien, Ava P. Christ, Andrew Connors, Neil Graham, Hanna Jickling, Joanne Jackson Johnson, Joyce Majisk, Meshell Melvin, Janet Moore, Carol Pettigrew, Julia Polyck, Doug Smarch, John Steins, Ukjese Van Kampen, and Mike Yuhasz.
Original curatorial text from October 19, 2001:
This show is a chance to shift our central Canada perspective to see what’s
going on in the Yukon, a huge territory that we hear very little about. This is a
place that falls off the cultural map. The idea for Bulldozer: 15 Yukon Artists
began with thinking about the extreme alterations to this landscape brought
about by bulldozing, like strip-mining and dredging for gold. It’s also about
imposing my own reading on this local practice. I’m bulldozing, in a sense.
I lived in the Yukon for a year as a teenager, my first year away from home. I
returned 25 years later, this time to see what artists were making and to think
about connections between northern and southern artists and viewers. It’s hard
to believe how long the distances are between towns, until driving on the
highway, a two lane, sometimes-dirt road, between Whitehorse and Dawson.
You can drive for a couple of hours and not see a building or person. The fact
of a small population in a huge area colours the way people live, think,
socialize and make art. This exhibition explores how conditions of production
in this particular place give rise to ways of working.
I organized the following selections into thematic groupings to reflect the
range of contemporary art production in the Yukon. I am grateful to the more
than 30 artists who submitted their work in response to an open call in the
Yukon News and to the 15 artists who have contributed their work to this
exhibition. Thanks to the Yukon Arts Branch for their generous support of this
project. Thanks also to SAW Gallery, especially Laura Margita and Marcus
Miller, Artengine and Alexander Castonguay and our web designer, Ted Davis.
Special thanks to Kim Bauer, Dale Smith, Yvonne Potter, and Johanna Mizgala
for their creativity and their help with organizing.