GROUNDED

Description:

A thematic residency and exhibition project organized by the ODDGallery and KIAC’s Artist in Residence program, The Natural & The Manufactured 2007 presented site-specific exhibitions by Canadian artist Jefferson Campbell-Cooper and American artist Carin Mincemoyer. 

Through annual exhibitions, artist’s talks and outreach activities, The Natural & The Manufactured presents contemporary site-specific and land based art practices to Yukon and visiting audiences. The project as a whole is intended to stimulate and engage people in a re-examination of the various cultural and economic values imposed on the environment, while exploring alternative political, social, economic and aesthetic agendas and strategies towards a re-interpretation of the regional landscape and social infrastructure. 

During a 6-week residency, Mincemoyer produced Grounded, Dawson City, a Gallery-specific installation transforming the space into a very ordered nature park built of recycled Styrofoam, live plants, wood, and lights.  Hundreds of Styrofoam packing components are used to create miniature landforms that house live plants from various climatic regions along with a constructed wooden walkway keeping viewers on the proper viewing path. 

The exhibition incorporates materials from the community and surrounding environment. Mincemoyer’s use of collected Styrofoam develops an interplay and juxtaposition between consumption & use, and re-use & disposal, all within a larger context that addresses and explores the complexities and contradictions in our relationship to the land and in the activities that signify it. [1]

Grounded was an indoor ‘nature park’ arranged into different geographic and climactic zones, such as Mountains, Desert, Tropics, and Swamp. The gallery director played the role of Park Ranger, and viewers could stroll around the park on the wooden boardwalk. [2]

The Natural & The Manufactured is an annual thematic collaboration between the ODD Gallery and the KIAC Artist in Residence Program.  Each summer, two artists come to Dawson City to undertake a six-week residency culminating in an ODD Gallery exhibition and public installation. 

Since 2005, this unique project in the far Canadian north has worked to stimulate and engage artists and the community in a re-examination of cultural and economic values imposed on the environment. Participants present alternative political, social, economic and aesthetic agendas and strategies towards a re-interpretation of the regional landscape and social infrastructure. 

As a site of creation, as well as presentation, the N&M promotes new research and projects with participating artists creating works specifically for the project during their residency at KIAC’s Macaulay House. As a result, this annual project addresses issues related to site-specificity, as well as land-based and environmental art practices:  the meaning of geography and the geography of meaning, the ephemeral and the concrete, the transitory nature of “nature” and our philosophical need to resist and respond to it. 

The Natural & The Manufactured explores these issues by assembling visual, media and interdisciplinary artists, curators, art historians, writers and cultural thinkers for residencies, exhibitions, lectures, essays and workshops. [3]

References:

[1]      “In the ODD Gallery: The Natural & The Manufactured 2007.” KLONDIKE INSTITUTE OF ART & CULTURE, January 14, 2020. https://kiac.ca/2007/08/16/in-the-odd-gallery-the-natural-the-manufactured-2007/.

[2]      “Grounded (Dawson City).” Carin Mincemoyer. Accessed June 29, 2021. https://www.carinmincemoyer.com/sculpture-installation/grounded-dc.

Additional information:

Bauberger, Nicole. “CARIN MINCEMOYER AND JEFFERSON CAMPBELL-COOPER, ‘The Natural and the Manufactured," Aug 16 – Sept 7, 2007, ODD Gallery, Dawson City.” Galleries West, August 31, 2007. https://www.gallerieswest.ca/.

Chalykoff, Leighann. “Styrofoam Mountains Rise in Northern Town.” Yukon News. Yukon News, August 16, 2007. https://www.yukon-news.com/news/styrofoam-mountains-rise-in-northern-town/.

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