T
Off-Site Projects
he artists’ off-site projects are to be found around Dawson City, from the north to the south
end of town and across the Yukon River. The accompanying map, created by Lea Bucknell,
serves as a guide to these projects as well as other Festival projects and venues. The
accompanying schedule of events lists times for guided tours of the artists’ projects, to be led by
Dr. Petran Kockelkoren.
Dianne Bos
Dianne Bos has created See the Stars, a darkened version of the wall tents that are a defining image of
Dawson City’s boomtown days. Light entering through a multitude of grommets set into its black fabric
will cast repeated images of the sun inside the tent; an allusion to European churches in which an open
aperture creates an optical projection of the noon-day sun. In contrast to the singular projection of such
historic noon-day sun markers, Bos’ many holes will create a corresponding number of sun images.
Resulting from the grommets’ careful placement these many sun images will provide a larger image of
the stars above that are always present but unseen during the light of summer.
Lea Bucknell
For her project, False Front, Lea Bucknell has created a jovial structure that speaks to both the
symbolic heritage of Dawson City and the present-day townsite. Taking the form of vernacular Gold
Rush era architecture that typifies so much of Dawson City, the structure’s flashy gold cladding gives
way to a more subdued interior that provides viewers with a vista across the Yukon River towards the
town and its surrounding landscape. Drawing upon Lucy Lippard’s claim that “all places exist between
the inside and outside views of them […]” False Front calls attention to the iconic history and lore of
this place as well as it provides an opportunity to contemplate Dawson as it is today.
Lippard. Lucy (1997) The Lure of the Local: senses of place in a multi-centered society, New Press, p. 33
Dawson City, Yukon, Canada