Artist's Statement
Underpinnings is the title of a site-specific installation inspired by Dawson City's beginnings and by its current reputation as a site of living history.
Among the throngs of men who came north to seek their fortunes in the late 1890's were a small number of spirited women. Some of
them turned to prostitution as a means of survival, and the town of Dawson soon marginalized them to an area across the river known as Klondike City or Lousetown.
Recent historical writing examines the role of prostitution in the Gold
Rush era in a wider social context, and what it meant to the
community and its economy. These women had the reputation of
being gold diggers for 'mining the miners', yet shrewd business
practices were only part of their character. There are also stories of
their compassion in caring for miners who were sick, and in
performing the role of nurses at a time when medical attention was
scarce or unavailable. In the spirit of adventure in which many of
these women left the confines of social restriction in the south and
east, Underpinnings acts as theatre for social memory, as a gesture
to embody a sense of their imagined past and their fragile yet
indomitable existence in a northern frontier town.
The form of the corset is utilized to acknowledge the significant role
of Dawson's pioneer women in the early settlement of the town.
The installation consists of a series of large-scale two-dimensional
forms based on corset patterns of the late nineteenth century, a
time when corsetry production, fashion and design was at its zenith.
Two different types of screening materials were employed to create
the forms, one of which was discovered locally.
The installation is suspended between widely spaced clusters of
tree trunks in a secluded ravine that forms a natural divide between
two historic properties. There, the mesh-patterned torsos hover
between church and state - the Anglican Church on one side and
The Commissioner of the Yukon's residence on the other. Dignified
turn-of-the-century architecture and formal landscaping stand in
sharp contrast to the lush uncultivated vegetation that lies between.
The mud-bottomed ravine is part of the Yukon River water table and
its own level fluctuates in direct response to the rivers.
Ministers of religion and politicians have both been influential in
determining the politics of sexuality. With Underpinnings posed in
this setting, the ravine and the architecture collectively allude to the
fundamental nature of desire and to a social order's efforts to
dominate and restrict it.
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