Arctic Circle Project (I, II)
The Arctic Circle Project (I, II) is based on a trip to the Swedish Arctic in February 2009 where I reinterpreted conceptual pieces by Lawrence Weiner, Harry Savage and Iain and Ingrid Baxter of N.E. Thing Company.
These artists had taken part in an expedition to Inuvik, NT in 1969 to make work for an Edmonton Art Gallery show organized by Bill Kirby. Lucy Lippard recorded the details of the trip and published it as “Art Within the Arctic Circle” in The Hudson Review (Vol. 22, No. 4) Winter 1969-1970. I came across the article before arriving in Sweden to begin a research fellowship at Umeå University.
In the course of carrying out my reinterpretations in Jokkmokk, Jukkasjärvi and Årrenjarka, I approached the 1969 work as a template in order to (re)examine the dual significance of the artwork and the gendered body of the artist in the context of the far north – and perhaps in the process alter the original intentions of the pieces.
Between 2009 and 2012 I corresponded with Lucy Lippard about her experience recording and interpreting the original pieces in 1969. This correspondence is now part of the work.
