A thematic residency and exhibition project organized by the ODD Gallery and KIAC's Artist in Residence program, The Natural & The Manufactured 2007 presents site-specific exhibitions by Canadian artist Jefferson Campbell-Cooper and American artist Carin Mincemoyer.
Through 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 will be producing 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.
During a 6-week residency, Campbell-Cooper has produced Shove: Fill, 2007, consisting of multiple site-specific outdoor sculpture installations. The structures are reminiscent of heavy construction equipment buckets and dredge scoops, that are constructed out of only locally found materials. The pieces are life-sized and as accurate and detailed as possible, providing the potential that they could be fastened to the equipment again.
Both exhibitions incorporate materials from the community and surrounding environment. Mincemoyer's use of collected Styrofoam, and Campbell-Cooper's use of various materials/debris found at outdoor sites, develop 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.
The Natural & The Manufactured is conceived as an ongoing, annual project to involve visual, media and interdisciplinary artists, curators, art historians, writers and cultural thinkers through residencies, exhibitions, lectures, essays and workshops.
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