COLIN LYONS Time Machine For Abandoned Futures
(outdoor installation: Midnight Dome)
A free shuttle to the Midnight Dome will be provided by Husky Bus:
Thursday & Friday 8:30 & 9:30PM
Saturday & Sunday 2:00pm
Meet at the ODD Gallery
During
my first visit to Dawson, in January 2010, I was
driven up to the dome to look out at the vast intestinal tailing piles
left by decades of dredging in the area. For me, this vista became
the lasting image of my trip to the Yukon. In a town that boasts
many historical monuments, these tailings seemed to represent the
‘authentic’ ruins of the Klondike gold rush.
Over the past several years, my work has focussed on the remnants
left behind in the wake of our industrial pursuits, and how we can
preserve, memorialize, or simply move beyond the weight of these
remains. In these works, I fuse printmaking, sculpture, and chemical
experiments in exploring industry through the lens of fragility
and impermanence, pushing printmaking beyond its traditional
boundaries, as a re-enactment of the boom and bust cycles of
industrial economies.
This project began with a quintessentially Klondike activity – a
kind of treasure hunting. Over the course of several weeks, I walked
along the dredge tailings, using a metal detector to excavate industrial
cast-offs, amassing a substantial collection of rusted metal tools and
fragments.
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